Hero High: Earth style
by Mr.Evil
Summary: Sequel to Hero High: Ben and Gwen are finally back on Earth with Ren. But something strange is going on in Bellwood as the new company is watching them. Will they be able to figure out whats going on in the shadows before it's too late? GwenxAlex BenxRen
1. Summer’s over

Because I was so sappy at the end of the prequel, I assure you this story will be very dark; especially with what I have in store for the Tennyson family.

Chapter 1: Summer's over

Within an above top security lab the alien warlord struggled on that large cold steel slab, even with all of his strength he couldn't break his binds; and if he pulled too hard a large surge of electricity went coursing through his veins.

Cursing at the people who put him in this situation, no matter how much electricity went through his body he still continued to fight and struggle; that was until someone walked in through those large metal doors, yet Vilgax's view was obstructed by the shadows the man used to hide himself. The man chuckled. "Amazing," the tone of this man was odd though, even though he was talking to this blood lusting alien the man sounded completely calm, "you have lead armies to destroy planets yet you fail when you try to attack Earth, both times. Have you thought that maybe our planet had more to it then the other aliens realize, or is that the reason you keep coming back? To prove your superiority?"

Even with a tone that sounded completely calm, this still infuriated the alien. "Once I get out of here, I'm going to destroy you first; along with that troublesome Tennyson family."

You didn't need to have seen the man's face to know he was smiling; pushing a button in his hand a screen above him showed the pictures of the Tennyson family. "Oh, you mean these people, strange how three earthlings could cause so much trouble for someone as... once as powerful as you."

Vilgax pulled harder at his binds, but again was shocked relentlessly. "You're pulling at the universe's strongest metal, which this company has created. The shockers are just an added amusement." He shut off the screen, "Now you see, this place has nothing to do with the government; it is my company that design tools of war and this family's unique abilities could be very profitable. I could make a killing," he chuckled off his joke.

"Then why am I here?" Vilgax snarled.

"To get rid of the competition of course, not to mention experimentation and other sorts of fun stuff I can think of." He bowed to the alien. "Have fun at your stay in Sphinx Corp."

* * *

The alarm from his annoying clock radio Gwen got him for his birthday just wouldn't shut up; feeling so good to be back in his own bed he never wanted to get out again. 

Yet from the amusement of his cousin's twisted views for a joke, the only way he could shut off the infuriating ringing was to unlock it from its case, if not the ringing would just get louder and louder.

As he used all of his sheets and pillows on top of it, he could hear it muffling its way out; not to mention the sunlight escaping through the cracks at his eyes was no help either. Even though he was only wearing a light white t-shirt with his Sumo Slammers boxers his room was so hot during the summer heat.

Finally, he heard that ringing stopped; glad that he could get in a few more minutes of sleep. But something struck him with his eyes wide open, wondering how the alarm at last silenced.

He had an idea of what could of happened, slowly turning to his side to see he was right; looking up right at Ren looking down at him, already dressed in her new school uniform of a white button shirt, a knee long skirt, and a light blue trim on the edge of her outfit; still barefooted though.

She has been living at his house since they came back from summer vacation, convincing his parents that she was part of a Student Exchange Program; in some ways it wasn't a lie.

But suddenly realizing his attire as she looked at him with those emotionless red eyes; he let out a short scream of surprised, only realizing now with all of his sheets on the other side of the room he had nothing to cover himself with. "Are you... alright, Ben?"

He felt his back against the wall; using his arms to try to cover himself in front of his alien housemate. "W-W-What are you doing in my room?"

Ren tilted her head slightly to the right, even if she couldn't express emotions on her face or voice he was getting better at reading her body language; this meant she was a bit puzzled by his question; this probably being her most common of body language. "You mother... asked for me... to get your... 'lazy butt'... out of bed," she walked a bit closer, "does that... mean, I pull you... out of bed?"

He calmed down a bit, yet still a bit nervous with his attire in front of her. "No, I just needed to get dressed and ready for breakfast; tell her I will be down in a few minutes."

She slowly nodded, her eyes moved along his room. Obviously they didn't sleep in the same room but this wasn't the first time she had been in his room; covered with Sumo Slammer posters, it used to have a poster or two of a bathing suit model, one lying on top of a earthling sports car and another one which looked as if the women was picking something up off the ground, but for some reason he took them down on the day she started to live with them, not to mention she used to hardly tell there was a rug on his floor yet he now kept his room relatively clean; even his uniform was hanging in his closet where his clothes used to be his sheets and rug.

"R-Ren," Ben stuttered to say, her head slowly turned to face him, "I need for you to leave the room, I have to get changed."

She slightly tilted her head once again. "I still don't... understand, we... live under the... same roof. My species only... wears clothes... outside."

Ben rubbed the back of his head, remembering that day he had to put on one heck of a performance when she came out of the bathroom with only a towel on her head. At the moment his parents just think that she is an exchange student from Hokkaidō Japan, since her species actions resembled closely with Japan then any other place on the planet, not to mention Hokkaidō's cold climate and cool summers explained for her snow white skin.

"Its just, humans see nudity as indecent anywhere outside of private areas like your room or the bathroom," he tried to explain to the best he could, "it is just how humans are."

Half expecting to hearing her say, 'its strange,' yet heard. "Then why in... certain magazines, do earthling females... wear nothing but high... heels?"

Rubbing his forehead, realizing that she must have discovered his dad's 'secret stash' inside the compartment under his bed after you move the panel out of the way... not that he would know anything about that. "That is an entirely different story, Ren; but right now we should head to breakfast before my mom yells at us both."

Just as she left his room, gently closing the door behind her, he sometimes wished that somehow he could tell what was going through her mind from time to time; like if she was as happy as he was that she was living with him and his family, or at least even happy to be living with him.

* * *

Later at seven a.m. Ben and Ren were dropped off at the entrance at their school; so much of his city has changed over the course of the summer, especially with the multi-billion dollar Sphinx Corp.'s main office now in the center of the City. It was very easy to spot even from his suburban home; the large white building that rose higher then any other building in the city. 

This company helped this city on many accounts, using the place as testing grounds for many of its new products yet in exchange has increased the police force, funded the hospitals with the latest equipment, and even has funded his school with computers, and even these uniforms; which Ben had white formal pants, light blue t-shirt that was covered with a white outer shirt, which he kept unbuttoned.

What had to be one of the most known items that Sphinx Corp made is what it gave to the people of the city known as the THOTH. It was able to access the internet, call others through a virtual screen, tell you how much weight or calories that you lost or gained in the day, keeps time down to the one-one millionth of a second, and countless of other items that were downloaded for free and activated through buttons or voice command. However the strangest thing was this devise looked just like their Omnitrix, but shook it off as just another rip off like that stupid Alien Cartoon based on Fourarms, Wildmutt and Heatblast; what idiot would give Fourarms a Scottish accent?

Nevertheless, all good things had to have a flaw, and this one was a big one. Gwen's father got a job at Sphinx Corp and she now goes to the same school as he does, neither one of the cousins were overjoyed at this news. They now even live close enough that they could visit on occasion where Ren sometimes heads over so they can look over school stuff.

And there she was, waiting for the two at the entrance in her school uniform, adding that strange cat logo on her collar; not really liking the uniform because she was more used to wearing pants then a skirt, even if it did reach past her knees. "Did my birthday present help?" she smirked, leaning her back against the entrance wall.

But Ben also smirked. "Hopefully you liked your birthday present from me as well."

Her smirk turned into an instant frown, remembering the trick magic kit she got for an inside joke, wishing to use a spell on him right now; instead rubbed her right hand over her new THOTH. "I didn't think I would be wearing this again."

The other two rubbed their Omnitrixs. "Too bad we can't wear one."

"Yeah well I need to head to my first class, got to get a good seat," but no matter what, she was still a bookworm of a cousin, watching her head off into the building.

Ben shook his head. "Sometimes I'm wondering what I'm going to do with my cousin."

But when he looked over he noticed Ren seemed a bit distracted, her right hand slowly moving up to touch her black headband, gently stroking it. For once she wouldn't be judged because of the size of her horns, but wondered how this species would judge her.

"Ren," Ben's concerned tone snapped her out of her daze, turning to look at him, "are you alright?"

She gradually nodded in reply. "Yes, I'm... alright. Shall we head... to class, like... Gwen?"

He brushed off that idea. "Nah, we still have plenty of time; how about first I show you around my 'home away from home.'"

She tilted her head slightly. "Is this a... Boarding School... just like... Galactic... Academy?"

He chuckled a bit from that. "No, it's just another earthling saying." He cupped his hand in hers; she felt her body starting to get warmer, "so let's go."

* * *

Gwen looked at her schedule, her eyes focused on her first class then back at the door; seeing as the numbers matched she pushed open the door and walked in; yet a bit shocked when she saw another student already in the room, setting down his white briefcase, which some student used instead of a backpack, at a seat at the front of the room. 

When the door closed, he shook a bit, quickly turning to see the lovely orange haired girl standing there. "Oh, hi there," the teenage boy waved to her, "you probably think I'm weird for arriving so early to class, am I right?"

He was a bit stunning to this young magician; he had skin white as snow but his eyes were the purest ocean blue she had ever seen, she felt like she would be lost in a daze if she focused on them for too long. She shook her head. "Oh no," tapping the tip of her right foot against the floor, always doing this when she felt nervous, "I was just doing, the same thing too."

Chuckling a bit, he rubbed the back of his short white hair. "Kind of glad to hear someone else besides me does this, my friends at my old school use to make fun of me for that."

She didn't know why she felt nervous around this teen; even feeling her heart race a little. "Well, it is better then rushing at the last minute," this fourteen year old girl smiled, yet she didn't know why.

"Not to mention you can get organized instead of looking everywhere for your paperwork and books," he added; his shoes echoed in that empty classroom until he stood in front of the Tennyson girl, he was at least two inches taller then her, "by the way, I don't think I've introduced myself yet," he held out his hand, "my name is Alexander, Alexander Sovereign; but please call me Alex."

She really liked that high-class polite tone of his, not to mention that gentle smile that graced his face. So she cupped her hand in his, instantly feeling a warm sensation coursing through her body with his touch. "My name is Gwen, Gwen Tennyson; it is nice to meet you, Alex."

Looking into her exquisite green eyes with his ocean blue ones, he shook her hand. "And I'm glad to meet you, Gwen."

She didn't know why, but she was nearly lost with him looking into her eyes, her legs even started to feel like wet noodles; but snapped out of it when Alex broke their handshake, still smiling at her. "Well, there are plenty of open seats, where would you like to sit?"

To Be Continued

It seems like a lot is going on for the Tennyson family for their first day of school: a company overshadowing them, Ren trying to fit in with earthlings, and this new guy that has caught Gwen's attention. If this is just the first chapter what else do I have up my sleeve? Read and Review.


	2. The first day of school

Wow, I was a bit shocked on how many reviews I got on the first chapter, I wasn't going to post this chapter till Monday but with all the reviews I decided what the heck. This goes for all future chapters as well, the more reviews the faster I will update.

Chapter 2: The first day of school

Alex and Gwen talked to each other for nearly a half-an-hour, sitting next to each other they hardly paid attention to when the students were starting to fill up the room, almost like they were old friends catching up over the summer.

They finally focused their attention elsewhere when their history teacher walked into the room. The man in is late fifties wore a casual blue Hawaiian shirt and tan pants, not addressing the class as he rested his brown leather suitcase on his large oak desk, even with all of the new funding this teacher stuck with the classics.

He turned towards the board, grabbing the plastic pen he wrote his name on the computerized blackboard. After that, he turned towards the class. "Hello class and welcome to the first day of school, my name is Mr. Ronicle and I will be your World History teacher for the next eighteen weeks, afterwards I will be your American History teacher for the remainder of the year."

He then past out a single sheet of paper, have a place to sign your name in the seat you were in. "Now just write your name down on this sheet of paper, from now on where you sit is where you will stay for the rest of the semester."

Alex wrote down his name before handing it off to Gwen, just as the teacher was about to make another announcement. "Alright, now I bet you all thought you were going to write a paragraph on how you spent your summer vacation," just with that comment, most of the students started to groan, "but instead I will have you all do a group project that will be due by the end of the week."

The students groaned even louder, even Gwen couldn't help but let out a small one, having one very interesting summer but her teacher would have probably passed it up as Science Fiction. "Now this will be a group of two, no more no less and today you will be working with your partner for an idea. Now after you find your partner, come up to my desk to sign up for what time you will want to present your project and I will give you a piece of paper that will tell you what is required."

Taking out a small stack of papers from his briefcase he placed him on his desk. "Alright class, find your partner."

Gwen nervously tapped the tip of her right foot on the floor below her seat, not knowing why she would feel like this just because she wanted to ask Alex to be her partner. They just met anyway; she shouldn't feel so emotional about it.

But he turned towards her. "Hey Gwen..." his voice also sounding nervous when addressing her, rubbing one of his hands over the other, "w-would you like to be partn..."

"Sure," she was shocked on how quick that came out of her mouth, feeling her face already becoming a bit flustered.

However, he gave her that warm smile of his; this making her feel relaxed once again. "I mean," now calm, "sure, do you have anything in mind?"

Alex scratched the side of his cheek with his index finger. "I did have something in mind about the Pyramids of Giza."

She liked the idea; there was plenty they could work off of from Egyptian History. "That will be perfect, let's go register this with the teacher before anyone else thinks of it."

He nodded. "Sounds like a good idea."

* * *

A little later in the day, Ben and Ren already saved a table in the lunchroom, wondering when Gwen was going to show up. Ben defiantly needed this, his best class period, to refuel for the rest of the school day; which consists of mystery meat and at least three sodas. Even though the mystery meat was rather questionable, it still looked and tasted better then what his grandfather would usually serve. 

But the day for Ren didn't seem like it could get any better, so far out of the first four classes she became somewhat of the teacher's favorite student. This made her a bit of an outcast from the envious students yet popular with the more intelligent ones; already she has been asked to join the clubs from chess to academics.

Gwen finally walked up to their table along with another guy by her side. The strangest thing Ben noticed is his cousin wasn't chuckling to what this guy just said but was giggling, thinking maybe that skirt went to her head.

"Hey there," Gwen called out, "do you mind if my classmate sits with us?"

The two seated looked over at the boy in white, who was giving them a wave. "Sure," Ben replied, "pull up a seat."

"Thanks," Alex waved, letting Gwen sit before he took his seat.

"Alex, this is my cousin Ben and our foreign exchange student from Hokkaido, Japan, Ren," Gwen introduced, "Ben and Ren, this is my classmate Alex."

"Hey there," he waved to Ben, but when he faced Ren he bowed slightly, "Konichiwa."

With her face expressing no emotion, she bowed as well. "Konichiwa," for her to stick with the story, the cousins taught her some of the basic Japanese phrases and cultures, well it was mostly Gwen but Ren caught on very quickly nonetheless, Ben just taught her what every he learned from his favorite manga and anime which was no help at all; Gwen seriously doubted the Japanese Government employed fourteen year-olds in a subbasement under Tokyo that was designed to fight giant aliens with giant humanoid robots.

But before Ben could say anything to his cousin, she was already starting a discussion with Alex. This was a bit shocking to him, half expecting her to say an insult like 'how many classes are you failing already.'

Yet even if he didn't have the best of memory he never saw this guy around school before. "Hey Alex, are you new here?"

Turning his attention to the alien hero, he nodded. "Yeah, my father and I moved here after the main office of Sphinx Corp. opened up in this city."

Gwen was a bit surprised from this information. "That's freaky, my father also moved here because of a job from Sphinx Corp.'s main office. My father works for the R&D Department, where does yours work?"

"The personal Lawyer to the CEO," he let out a short chuckle, "it really is a small world after all isn't it?"

Gwen nodded, but their assignment quickly popped back into her mind. "So you want to head to the Library after school where we can do some research on our project?"

Alex agreed. "That would work; I'm thinking we should focus on the mathematical calculations that were used in the placement of the pyramids line up with the stars of Orion to how they were built so perfect even with the lack of our modern tools."

"That would be perfect," Gwen stated excitedly, after that long summer it was nice to be with an intelligent guy, compared to being cooped up with her dweeb of a cousin. "We could also structure a model detailing how it is lined up with the stars."

"Gwen," Ren's voice broke the two's conversation with her emotionless tone, "we are heading... to your grandfather's... house after school... right?"

The orange haired sorceress completely forgot, with their grandfather wanting to check up on them and their abilities; about to tell Ren to tell Max about her report but Alex stepped in. "Well this project was given to us rather suddenly, we can work on the project tomorrow and I will do the research tonight, would that work out?"

Gwen was rather surprised by Alex's offer; usually in her old school during a group project she would be dumped on with all of the research, saying she must like it for all of the studying she does. "No, I mean yeah, that would work out, but are you sure you want to do all of the research?"

"It's no problem, family should always come first, but," he started to rub the back of his head, "my house is still under heavy renovations and my room is full of boxes, would it be alright to work on the project at your house?"

Gwen couldn't help but fluster a bit from that question, she only just met this guy a few hours ago but now he was asking to come over to her house; swallowing hard even though there was nothing in her mouth. "U-Uh sure, I'll get the supplies and we can work on it after school in my room," yet after saying that her face grew a deeper shade of red, did she really just invite him to her room?

However, as she looked into those ocean blue eyes of his she could feel her body relaxing; why did act this way around this guy, usually she was very head strong and tough but now she didn't know what to make of herself. "That would work out," he replied calmly, she could of swore that her heart just skipped a beat, if that wasn't physically possible without getting a heart attack.

But Ren looked over at this new friend of Gwen's, at first looks he would probably be mistaken for one of her species: the solid color eyes and snow white skin was usually the dead giveaway yet his head looks to have never even grown horns and was easily able to express emotions.

Though, unlike how her friend would get a warm feeling when looking into his eyes she felt her body temperature rapidly decreasing, her skin feeling like it was made of ice; like how it use to feel before she met the Tennysons, before she met Ben.

Ben being as dense as he is, it was fairly shocking on how quickly he noticed Ren shivering. "Hey Ren, are you alright?"

Her lifeless eyes met his. "I'm a little... cold."

Ben let out a short chuckle. "Well that is one of the problems with school; the teachers keep that air conditioning running all day long it starts to feel like a freezer. How about I take you outside, the sun might help warm you up?"

Feeling his hand gently grasping hers, she could already feel her body warming up; but she agreed to it anyway, replying with a simple nod. "Hey Gwen," the cousin asked, "Could you look after our place, I'm just going to take Ren out for some fresh air."

"No problem," she replied quickly without adding an insult, this kind of freaking out her cousin, when was she ever this nice?

Just as Ben led Ren out of the lunchroom, Alex asked. "I'm curious, are they dating?"

Cursing to having been drinking her orange juice at that moment, she coughed a few times before replying. "No they aren't dating; she just lives with his family," although now this made her curious, "why do you ask?"

"They just look like a nice couple," he replied with a smile, but added, "however your probably going to think this is strange, yet even when she wasn't expressing any emotions I somehow got the feeling she was very happy when he held her hand; weird huh?"

She actually giggled a little from that question, if he experience what she did over the summer that would be very low on her weird scale. "No, not at all."

* * *

Ben stopped walking just as he pulled Ren into the sun, it was pretty hot that day, still within the late August heat so he hope that she would warm up quickly, still not truly sure by how much a human and a Bucerusian's body structure were similar. "Do you feel better, Ren?" 

She could already feel her body warming up with her hand gently cupped in his, but she was still shivering. "A little."

He then stood in front of her, cupping both of her hands in his. The heat was now starting to reach to her face. "Here, this is a trick my mother used to do on me when I was cold."

The alien hero started to rub both of his hands with hers; this little trick of his really was helping, feeling her body warming up rather quickly.

However, Ben stopped when he started to hear some of the comments from the other students of how much of a couple they looked together. A faint amount of red could be seen on his face as he rubbed the back of his head. "Do you feel, better?"

She cupped her hands together, still feeling the sensation on them that made her body feel warm. "Yes I... do, arigato."

For once, he was on the side of not understanding when he was talking with her; wondering if it was a word used on her planet. Well, until. "It means, thank... you, in... Japanese," wishing her face would at least smile for him.

* * *

Ben cheered as he burst out of those school doors. The longest school day was finally over and he wanted nothing more then to head straight to their grandfathers to show off the new tricks he could do. 

And there was the old Rustbucket parked right at the entrance, hearing his grandpa honking twice to get their attention. Ren was already by his side but Gwen was saying her goodbyes to her new friend.

"Well that's my ride," she kept tapping her right foot on the concrete, wondering why she had to feel so nervous when talking with him, "are you sure you want to do all of the research, I'll try to get off early and meet you at the library."

He shook his head in reply before gazing deeply into her eyes. "It's alright and besides, family should always come first."

Those pure ocean blue eyes of his were making her feel delightfully numb again, but she snapped out of it when he gently waved his goodbyes. "Have a good time with your grandfather and leave it all to me, there is no need to worry."

"A-Alright, see you tomorrow then," the orange haired girl replied, watching him walk down the steps and towards the school gate.

"Geez Gwen," Ben groaned, "what the heck is wrong with you? You're acting weirder then usual."

Once Alex was out of sight she glared daggers at her cousin. "It's none of your business dweeb! By the way, how many classes are you already failing?"

Now that was the cousin he knew. "Oh come on dufus, compared to Prof. Synaptak long lectures this place is a piece of cake."

"Let's just see, will you actually pay attention now that you no longer get credits for grades?" Gwen showed that smug grin of hers.

Ben was chuckling sadistically, causing that smugness of hers to disappear. "Well my mom was more then willing to try anything to help me focus on my school work, so I get five dollars per A I get for each assignment."

The sorceress was shocked to this information, turning to Ren as she nodded in agreement to the boy's story. "So I'm guessing through the school year you will get the most of five dollars."

Grinding his teeth, wanting to yell back at her but their grandfather honked his horn again. "Last one to the Rustbucket has to wash the dishes," then dashed off for that head start.

"Hey get back here dweeb!" She dashed, along with Ren.

* * *

After walking down the sidewalk for a few blocks, a long white limo stopped next to Alex; even as the driver was about to get out to open the door for the teen, Alex let himself in. 

Once he closed the door behind him and rested his briefcase on the floor, his driver stated. "I'm sorry Master Sovereign; I should have been quicker to assist you."

Alex chuckled a little from his driver's nervous nature. "Don't worry Carlson; I can open a door by myself. But thank you for picking me up here then at the school like I asked."

"I just know your father is going to be angry at me if he finds out I let you walk alone for so long."

"If there is any altercation I will take full responsibility," he then took out his World History school book, looking in the index at Egyptian History before turning to the page, "but for now please take me to the library, I need to look up some information for a class project."

"On your first day of school, this place is going to keep you busy isn't it?" his driver chuckled, starting up the limo and putting on the turn signal before driving back onto the street, "have you made any friends yet?"

Alex nodded before he flipped the page. "Yes, her name is Gwen Tennyson. Her father also works at Sphinx Corp."

"You didn't tell her what your father does did you; you remember what happened at your last school?"

"I just told her my dad works as a Lawyer to the CEO; I wasn't going to tell her my father is the CEO."

"That's good to know, your father does like his privacy; but you will be at the library in ten minutes, Master Sovereign."

Alex felt his driver make a wide left turn. "Please Carlson, call me Alex," he gently smiled. "By the way, how is your son doing, I believe he turned two last week."

To Be Continued

So Alex is the son to the CEO; is he in on the plan, being used as well, or is this just all coincidence that I will exploit for my own twisted views of amusement? Well keep reading and reviewing to find out.

P.S. I hid a reference to an anime in this chapter; the first person to PM me the anime's title and why it was that anime I made a reference too I will ask you for your email address and give you first look at chapter 3 before it is posted. Only the first one with the answer will get the prize.


	3. After School Training

Sad to see no one could answer my riddle, everyone who tried got half of it right but you seemed to miss the other half of my question as to why I did so; there was a very specific reason to why. P.S. I said to answer the question in a PM (Private Message).

The answer was Evangelion and the reason was is because Ren is based off of Rei from that show (Blue hair, red eyes, appears emotionless).

Chapter 3: After School Training

It was a beautiful cloudless afternoon; but even on an afternoon like this, a rugged late twenties man ran through that unnamed forest with only the look of fear on his face. He stopped behind a tree, breathing heavily with bullets of sweat dripping down his face. A man of this size and mass there didn't seem like there would be anything he would be afraid of.

But even without a sound he started to feel like his chest was on fire, looking down, his plain white shirt quickly turned red. His eyes grew pail and lifeless as his body fell to the ground, three holes clearly visible through the tree.

A jeep quickly pulled up to the scene, a Pyramid logo located on the doors as a strong African-American man stepped out from the passenger side. This man wearing a high-ranking dark green military outfit while holding the large black pistol in his left hand; a dark grin clearly shown on his face. "Pharaoh," he spoke into the small phone in his ear, "I always love doing business with your company; you've outdone yourself yet again."

The dark chuckling quickly followed. "And I am glad to be of service in your country's civil war in South Africa, Admiral. The pistol you are holding is the new M-51 Anubis, it fires a special depleted uranium bullet which heats up so it can be fired through objects without losing speed or accuracy, even through your enemy's tanks; built-in silencer, not to mention its size is small enough to hide under your jacket, I bet your covert-ops unit will love the less weight."

"I already do myself, Pharaoh," looking at the gun's design, "I might even want one for my own personal collection. Put me down for fifty-one of these."

"Once the diamonds are transferred to Sphinx Corp. they will arrive by the time you are home. But please don't make up your mind just yet, there are plenty more 'test subjects' and plenty of other armory to try. I didn't get these guys transferred from death row to live after all. Like the person convicted of stabbing his wife 23 times you just shot."

Pharaoh then paused for a moment, "According to my information, the next one on your radar is a convicted serial child molester; estimated one-hundred and thirteen children were assaulted by this man before apprehension, including his own step-daughter," his voice grew colder, "one should never harm their own family. Please try out the N9 Nephthys Rifle with scope, the mercury bullets are enhance to completely liquefy the body that is pierced; only the dog tags and clothes will be able to tell of the person that fell."

"You always seem to like making your clients trash men," the Admiral chuckled.

"Well, at least these scum are useful for something," the CEO of Sphinx Corp. stated, "but they will be disposed of if you are to kill them or not. Now if you don't mind, I have another meeting to get to, enjoy yourself."

With that he hung up the phone, hiding in the shadows he could only grin, pushing a button on his desk. "Neith, I would like to make a donation of fifty thousand dollars to an orphanage in Bellwood, some extra funding just came to the company."

"Yes Pharaoh, the paperwork will be completed by the end of the day," his assistant replied, not even someone as close as his personal assistant knew the true name of the man who ran Sphinx Corp., owning every media outlet to make sure of that fact.

"Than you Neith," he released the button, chuckling; wondering if the orphanage knew the money came from blood, would they refuse it. It would be interesting to see their reaction, but for what he had in mind for this world he would have to hold back, for the time-being; his attention now focused on the screens in front of him: the Tennysons.

* * *

Max watched the children through their training, Gwen was studying through her spell book with a few small charms she has gathered through their travels; always feeling a strong connection with these when she past by them at flee markets. 

Where at that same moment, Ren and Ben were Wildmutts, jumping from tree limb to tree limb as they used their advance sense of smell and hearing to dodge the traps the Plummer set up for them.

As Ben swung to the next branch to dodge what he assumed to be a flying rock, it snapped under his own weight. About to hit the ground but Ren reached out for him, grabbing onto his wrist to swing him over to the next branch. Max would noticed they were very good at teamwork; half expecting his grandson to always rush ahead without much thinking however with Ren by his side he was more focused and determined.

Ren flung herself up into the air just as this time Ben grabbed her wrist, rotating around that tree to have her slash at the target. With that Ben's grandpa applauded. "All right kids that is enough for today."

Landing on all fours before switching back to their normal forms; Ben was drenched in his sweat, breathing heavily from that long training; using his right arm to clear his forehead. Ren was also breathing heavily and covered in perspiration even though her face didn't show an ounce of exhaustion. "Well I will call that a great training," Max informed, "now remember not to only rely on those senses as Wildmutt but that ability can come in handy for any situation or alien."

The two nodded. "We... get... it," Ben stated between breaths, "now... can I... just... fall... down?"

Before his grandfather could reply the boy fell forward onto the grassy floor, Ren kneeling next to the teen to make sure he was all right. "You can relax Ren, the bonehead is just overreacting," the kind Gwen stated while simultaneously using a new spell of hers to move a boulder; something that weight around two-hundred pounds was now as light as a feather within that transparent green orb.

Ben turned his head to glare at his cousin, sitting up with some help from Ren. "Oh like I was the only one overreacting today Gwen," the cousin shot back, "what was with the nice act you were pulling in front of that new guy?"

Her face quickly turned a bright shade of red; her spell suffering from it as the rock crashed back on the ground. "I am only nice to people who deserve it, that's why it's rare for you to see it."

"Oh," their grandfather just couldn't help but get interested in his grandchildren's lives, "who is this new guy, Gwen."

She looked down, tapping her right foot on the ground; she hasn't even known this boy for twenty-four hours yet she kept feeling so nervous when it came to him. "His name is Alex, he is a classmate of mine and his father also works at Sphinx Corp. We are also partners on a history project."

"Oh yeah that reminds me," Ben ranted, "you know what Sphinx Corp. did to P.E.? Whoever runs that company funded the school at the price of removing the sports to make it a Dance Class. We are learning something called the Martz tomorrow."

"It's called the Waltz, dufus," Gwen was quick to correct, never missing a chance to do so, "and it wouldn't hurt you to learn how to dance, you never know when it will come in handy. Like if you were to attend a Wedding as a Best Man," but then her eyes shined, "and I was to be the Maid of Honor, oh I would love to be the Maid of Honor."

The family noticed she had got a bit off topic, usually doing so when it came to weddings for some reason, so grandpa filled in what the orange hair girl left off. "Maybe Sphinx Corp. is just looking out for recreation that would be more useful after school. Not to mention you would be prepared at the School Dance with your date."

Ben unconsciously looked over at Ren before quickly looking away, completely flustered. "W-Well, it might not be so bad," he rubbed the back of his head, "but I still wish there was a baseball team."

Once Gwen snapped out of her daydream, a thought appeared in her head. "By the way, does anyone even know who runs Sphinx Corp.?"

This question actually made the family think, after all the good they heard Sphinx Corp. has not only done for their city but for all over the world, they never actually heard any information to who created and runs the company; like it just popped up overnight. "So far..." Ren added her thoughts, "I've only seen... his assistant... make public... appearance."

"Maybe the guy just likes his privacy," Ben actually stated something intelligent before laying on his back to look up at the clouds passing by, "I mean with all the good he does I doubt the Press wouldn't leave him or his family alone for a second."

They all seem to agree with that idea and left it at that. "Well, I better get you guys home; you probably have a lot of homework to get to."

Ben groaned. "Ugh, don't remind me; I have a Pre-Algebra paper, writing definitions in the English book, not to mention I have to write the answers to the assignments in my Biology book. I always thought the first day was a sleep day."

"What is a... sleep day?" Ren asked.

"The dweeb just thought nothing but introductions would take place today, so he was completely under equipped and already has to catch up."

He rolled his eyes at the smug grin of his cousin, but Ren looked over at him; he could somehow feel concern coming from her emotionless eyes. "Could I... help in... anyway?"

His cheeks begin to turn a slight shade of red when she looked at him with those scarlet eyes of hers, sometimes feeling like his face would just move closer to hers, but holds back. "S-Sure, w-we can work on our homework t-together."

Gwen and Max just shook their heads, wondering how much longer this was going to go on. With that in mind, an idea quickly came into her mind. "Hey Ren," she called out to get the alien's attention, "how about once your finished up with your study date, you come over to my house and watch a few movies, maybe a sleep over?"

Ren tilted her head slight. "What is a... sleep over?"

"It's what earthling girls do," Ben was groaning when explaining, "you basically get dolled up with make-up, watch a bunch of chick-flicks, and stay up all night. I'm still wondering why they call it a sleep over."

"Dolled up?" she asked, "Chick-flicks?"

"Never mind my cousin, just call when you two are done," the sorceress walked back to the Rustbucket, "well let's get going gramps; I've got some homework to complete as well."

* * *

With two knocks Gwen opened the door, smiling at the blue-haired teen that held a small duffle bag by her side and school bag on her back. "Well at least there is one good reason I live a few blocks away from my cousin; you know my mom would have just picked you up." 

Ren slowly shook her head. "I don't mind... the walk. So how does... this sleep... over work?"

"You'll see," Gwen let the girl into her house before shutting the door. Ren looked around the entry way, there are still some un-open boxes around the house but far less then there was the first time she was in Gwen's house. It was a fairly roomy home, Ren always wondered why a family of three would need a house this size, but a job at Sphinx Corp. must have paid well.

"Now, did you bring everything I told you to bring?" Gwen asked.

She held out her duffle bag and nodded her head slowly. "Yes, the... pajamas... tooth brush... and school... uniform."

The orange-haired girl clasped her hands together. "Perfect, now let's head over to the den after you drop off the bag in my room; you remember where it is right?" With a simple nod the Tennyson continued. "Then I will get the popcorn and the movie ready. Extra butter like you like."

Gwen quickly walked off to the kitchen as Ren made her way up that winding staircase.

* * *

The only light came from the glow of the plasma screen television of their romance movie; thirty-six minutes past ten. Even with Gwen's tough front she puts up with all day with this movie she just couldn't hold back the tears, already on the second box with fifteen minutes remaining. But if her cousin was to ever hear about it she would deny it to no end. 

But throughout this movie Ren was completely baffled; did humans really act like this when it came to romance? For most of what happened the two involved would be executed on her planet: from becoming intimate before the Ritual of One Life or having a relationship with someone else besides their mate; other things like this horrid 'making out' in public would get them arrested, such a grotest display of artificial love. Not to mention what was this thing the earthlings call a 'Divorce,' how could mates separate?

This wasn't the first time she noticed these kinds of actions, seeing anything from billboards to television advertisements, with the promotion of intimate acts broadcasted with some product that had no relation to the act whatsoever. It almost seemed like for the human's culture saw such acts as entertainment rather then the pure act it was seen on her planet.

Well that was, before she came to this city. Within the time she started living with Ben there wasn't a single billboard, television, radio or newspaper advertisement that depicted anything of the sort, well not counting those magazines she found under his parent's bed after moving a panel, but it was more towards family values; she could nearly mistake it for her home planet.

"I don't... understand," Ren's monotone voice broke Gwen's focus, "do humans... really take... intimacy... so lightly?"

Now that Ren mentioned it, maybe this movie wasn't the best tool to help the alien to learn about human relationships and probably should have focused on something in the Disney movie category, not to mention she never did ask how relationships on Ren's planet work. "Not really, they are overexadurating for this movie," she somewhat lied; it might not be all at once but this did happen on their planet.

"Your mating... rituals are... so very odd," her snow-like hands clutched her pillows tightly, "why would... humans act like... that? Would Ben... act like that?"

"Come on," the sorceress tried to hide her uncertainty with a smile, "my cousin is too much of a dufus to do something like that. Well once you actually tell him how you feel," she looked over at her alien friend, "by the way, why haven't you said anything yet to him, can't you tell he's crazy about you?"

Ren tilted her head. "I'm making him... crazy?"

The orange haired girl kept forgetting how she choice her words around this teen, with the short time Ren has been on this planet she has yet gotten the concept of slang. "It means, he feels the same about you," Gwen watched as Ren's scarlet eyes moved to the left, the bookworm was a bit shocked, "couldn't you tell?"

Slowly shaking her head, Gwen added. "From what I can understand with your species, you can send and receive the others emotions through your eyes. So why can't you see it?"

Gwen didn't have to look into Ren's eyes to know she was nervous. Her body language was as clear as day: rubbing one bare barefoot over the other, her fingers clutching tightly onto that couch pillow in her arms. "I can't... understand human... emotions. They are... baffling."

"What do you mean?" the young teen asked.

"Everyone seems too... never be truthful... with their feelings, it's hard to tell... what they even believe... of their feelings." Her emotionless red eyes focused on Gwen's, making her a bit nervous. "Like how you... won't admit your... feelings about... Alex."

Gwen's face instantly flushed, now she was the one rubbing one barefoot over the other. "I-I don't like him l-like that. I just met him today."

Ren looked away, back at the glowing screen. "Why would it... take longer then a... day to like... someone?"

Even though the two looked like the same species there was so much different about them; Gwen could only rub her head, the conversation was just getting too strange for her. "How about we finish up this movie and head up to my room, we still got our nails and hair to do, maybe some of our homework; there is still more we can do tonight."

To Be Continued

What are the girls going to do and what does Sphinx Corp.'s mysterious CEO Pharaoh have planned for the Tennyson family. Read and review to find out.


	4. Learning the Waltz

What I saw for Ben's parents in the Live Action movie creeped me out, so I changed them a bit for my fanfiction; enjoy.

Chapter 4: Learning the Waltz

The second day of school and it already reached what they now call P.E. class; Ben just couldn't see how a class where you learn how to dance could be in the same category as something like baseball or hockey. Like how for the first day was spent just measuring their feet for the dance shoes they would be getting today, now a P.E. class without sneakers shouldn't be called a P.E. class.

Yet that wasn't the worst of it, this class being the only class that he shared with his cousin, he might just have to dance with her; that thought alone sent a shiver throughout his body.

But with a few claps from their Dance Teacher, the chattering ceased and all eyes were on her. "Now now quiet down class," Miss. Ballare instructed, "for today we will be learning the basics to the close position dance known as the Waltz; now we don't have much time for this class period so try to keep up."

On the rectangular tables set up in a line behind her in their auditorium was a plastic bag with a pair of white dance shoes in each. "Thanks to a generous donation from Sphinx Corp., they have funded for your dance shoes that when you are done with them will be placed in your gym lockers, under no condition are you aloud to take them home unless you talk with me first. If you do take them home and lose them you will have to buy a new pair or fail the class, and FYI each pair comes around seventy-five dollars."

That price alone already made the students want to keep theirs here. "Now your bags are labeled, come and get yours so we can get started."

She made her way as the students made their way to the table, the shoes labeled in alphabetical order from left to right which made it easier to find their pair. After each quickly found theirs and put them on they made there way out to their once basketball court, now known as the dance floor.

The echoing of their hard rubber heels stopped once everyone found their place, boys on one side and girls on the other. "All right class, this is for the boys since they are leading, but this also means that if something goes wrong it is probably their fault," Miss. Ballare instructed with a small smile to the giggling girls, placing her feet together, "the basic move is very simple, you start by dragging your left heal out forward," she demonstrated, "then you drag your right toes forward to meet up with your left foot, but you don't stop there as you then drag your right foot over to the side, afterwards you drag your left foot over to the right foot and stop. You do his in a 1... 2... 3 motion, and that is the basic."

The boys didn't see it that hard, at least ninety-five percent getting it right on their first try; even Ben breezed through it, thinking this class would be a snap. "Now the second basic will be what you just did but in reverse," she demonstrated, "you drag your right foot behind you where you drag your left back then over as you finish it off by dragging your right foot over to your left; you should end up back where you started."

With that all said, the boys once again performed the step with little to no trouble. "Excellent," their teacher exclaimed, "now practice while I demonstrate the steps the ladies will be performing."

Once she turned around, half of the guys took her advice while the other half started conversations. Ben was about to join them, but was stopped by. "Hey there, Ben was it?"

Turning around stood Alex, still giving off that calm smile of his; this smile creped him out yet he could never explain why. Probably because you just don't see a guy his age smiling like that, too classy. "Yeah, what do you want?" he didn't mean to sound rude, it just came out like that.

But Alex took no offence to it, still smiling. "What do you think about the dance class so far, not as bad as you thought it would be yesterday?"

Ben remembered the other day, he wouldn't stop groaning or complaining on how it wasn't a sport; rubbing the side of his neck before replying. "I admit, so far it isn't as bad as I thought."

"Glad to hear that. But did you know that through ballroom dance you can have your body express the words you can't seem to get out through speech; its like another way to express emotions and communicate," Alex informed.

Ben looked at the teen befuddly. "What the heck are you talking about?"

Alex chuckled to this teen's reaction. "Oh my, maybe I will need to put more detail into my explanation. While dancing you have to be close with your partner; how you hold her, help her, dance with her, can give off details of how you feel about that person. Maybe once you start dancing you will probably understand."

While thinking about what Alex told him, he unconsciously looked over at Ren once or twice as she learned the steps; then looked back at Alex. "Why are you telling me this?"

Alex chuckled again. "You have a crush on your exchanged student," Ben's eyes went wide, "and I'm guessing you don't want to say anything because sooner or later she will have to return to Japan, am I right?"

Well Alex got half of it right, but the alien hero wasn't going to corrected him on that last part. "H-How did you find out?"

"Actually I was just guessing," he said way too calmly for Ben's comfort, "I was just confirming my suspicions when you kept looking at her as I told you that; not to mention after one day you are already a rumored couple around school."

Ben started to remember that incident where he was trying to help Ren warm up, hearing the clear whispers around him. "But Ben, even if she is to leave would you rather just be housemates or let her know how you feel; who knows she might even feel the same way about you."

Ben was a bit eerie at how Alex was very observant, this being the second day he has seen this guy yet he could easily read his actions; either that or he was just more obvious then he realized. "Wait, why should I listen to you about relationships when you're always hanging around my cousin?"

On that pure white face, a small shade of pink graced it. "What are you talking about?" he asked calmly, rubbing the back of his short white hair. "Is there something wrong with Gwen where I shouldn't hang out with her?"

Pulling out that imaginary list of his from his pocket, he started from the top. "First: she is a know-it-all; second: she always has to have the last word; third: she always has to be right; forth: she is a complete bookworm, must I go on?"

Alex scratched the outside of his cheek with his index finger. "If you ask me, I would prefer a girl with something on her mind then one that just believes can go through life based on being developed early. To be truthful, girls who expect attention by flaunting their bodies actually make me sick to my stomach," he was able to say with that calm smile still on his lips and without a hint of disgust on his voice, almost like he was incapable of showing off any other emotion besides that eerily calm smile.

Ben started to look like he was about to throw up, did this guy actually have a crush on Gwen? "Please don't tell me you like her, you only met her yesterday."

Alex was still smiling. "I don't understand what you mean, why should it take longer then a day to like someone?"

The young alien hero wanted to exclaim what the heck was wrong with him to like someone like Gwen, but the teacher got the class's attention once again. "All right girls, head out and grab a partner so you can go over the basics."

Gwen walked up to the young teen, where he graciously held out his hand to hold onto hers; she instantly felt a warm sensation course through her body, her legs almost couldn't support her weight if it wasn't for Alex's strong arm frame. She smirked. "I'm guessing this isn't the first time you have taken ballroom."

He grinned in returned. "Since I was five, my little sister and I used to perform at parties my mother and father would hold."

Gwen giggled. "Sounds like fun, does she go to this school?"

Even with that smile on his face, he slowly shook his head. "It's complicated, I'll go into detail for you at lunch. But for now, let us work on the basics."

But Ben and Ren almost seemed too nervous to even touch each-other, taking what seemed like a minute just to get their arms in the right place; a bit of an amusing sight to the other students who happened to catch a glimpse from the rumored couple. "All right class," their teacher spoke up, "let's get started; five, six, seven, eight.

* * *

At their usual table for lunch, Alex opened his white leather wallet before revealing the picture to the orange haired sorceress; one of him who looked to be the age of eight standing behind his little sister who was sitting in a chair. Gwen couldn't help but be bug-eyed at the sight of his cute little sister in that white dress of hers, snow white skin with hair that went far down her back, and just like her brother those pure ocean blue eyes. "She is so adorable," she couldn't help but exclaim, "are you twins?"

She handed back his wallet as he shook his head. "Nope, she is a year younger then me, but she is adorable," he smiled.

"Now I know I haven't seen her around school, why isn't she here?"

It took a few seconds for Alex to reply to that, he seemed to putting some effort in keeping that calm smile on his face. "Well once my parent's divorced two years ago I was set to live with our father and she was set to live our mother. I haven't seen or heard from her since."

How he even had the strength to keep that smile on his face Gwen would never know, not only having to go through a divorce but to never have any contact with his little sister. "Not even a phone call?"

He shook his head. "Nope, it was part of the settlement; this is the only thing I have left of my sister; I hope she has grown up well and happy."

A warm smile now graced Gwen's face, maybe his was contagious. "You care deeply about your sister, don't you?"

He chuckled a little from that comment. "I would be lying if I said I didn't, I am her older brother after all; I only wish for her safety and happiness."

But then, Alex looked directly into Gwen's eyes, feeling her blood starting to rush to her face. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm guessing that you and Ben are only children."

Taken back a bit from that comment, she nodded. "Yeah, but how did you know?"

"I was just guessing, because how you act around each other I would swear that you were brother and sister. You are just being an older sister to make sure that Ben knows how to take care of himself when he is older."

For Gwen this was a change, usually the people around them would think they were a couple of some-kind even though they were cousins. "Huh, I never thought of it like that; being an older sister to him."

And speak of the devil, Ben just walked with Ren by his side. "Hey what took you so long?" Gwen called out.

"Ren was helping me out in Pre-Algebra class," Ben groaned, "why did they have to add letters into Math; if I remember correctly English and Math were two separate classes."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Well get use to it Ben because this is only the second day of school."

Ben let out a louder groan before resting his head on the table, Math just wasn't one of his better subjects. "But you seem to... be doing better... Ben," Ren's monotone voice replied, "you are...starting to... understand... the variables."

"Well you do explain it better then the teacher," the teen replied, where for some reason he started to feel a bit flustered; rubbing the back of his head, "thanks."

Ren slowly nodded her head. "It is no... problem... I am glad... to help."

With these two looking at each other, Alex whispered to Gwen across the table. "How about we break from lunch early and head to the library so I can show you the information I found for our project."

Gwen looked over at her bonehead cousin and Ren before looking back at Alex, nothing much seemed like was going to happen here. "Sure."

* * *

They had a good twenty-five minutes till their next class, plenty of time for her to look over some of the information that they would be working on to get a jest of what they can focus on. But Gwen also had to ask as they sat at that table in the vacant room. "So why did you want to look over the information in the library, we could have easily done this in the lunch room?"

Speaking as he reached down from his seat to look through his briefcase. "A few reasons: because it is quieter in here, we can look over some more research if necessary, and those two defiantly needed some alone time if they were ever to confess."

Gwen giggled a bit once he sat back up with that white notebook in his hands. "They so obviously like each other, don't they?"

"As obvious as the sand in Egypt," he chuckled before handing her over the book, "this should have all we need."

The orange-haired girl opened the book and was instantly shocked and surprised. Not only was there information relating to what they were talking about yesterday, but there was also what book, page and line he got the information from, just incase they had to return to look it up. Not to mention the handwriting was neat and clean with even some mathematical formulas on another page that triangulated how many years it took for the stars to line up with the pyramids.

She didn't say anything for nearly a minute while she flipped through the pages; this caused Alex to rub the back of his head. "Hopefully I didn't screw up too badly," he let out a nervous chuckle.

"No, no, that's not it," she nearly exclaimed to the teen, almost forgetting she was still in the library; Alex really went into detail with his research. "how long did it take you to get all of this information?"

Alex activated his THOTH, projecting a small virtual screen of his schedule, Gwen couldn't make out anything from the angle she was sitting in. "Let's see, school gets out at three-fifteen and I didn't leave the library till around seven, so about four hours."

Gwen was once again speechless, with all of this information he had it might only take one night to complete their project; all that was needed was to write their report and build the model.

But she noticed something out of place in his notes; she nearly missed it from being so dumbfounded by the detailed research. On the first few pages, the first letter to each paragraph were in bold. Once she figured it out the hidden message became clear to her; it said, **Do you want to go out sometime?**

Now speechless from this message, she looked up to see he was still giving her that kind gentle smile of his, but he broke the silence. "I'm guessing you already found the message, am I right?"

She felt like if her throat suddenly became dry, so she only nodded in reply. Still a bit shocked as well, they had just met the other day and he was already asking her out on a date. She wasn't against it or anything but still caught off guard by his speed.

He rubbed the back of his head. "I knew you would figure out that little message of mine; I wanted to ask you face-to-face but my throat felt like a desert just thinking about it, so I entered that message in; personally I thought it might have taken a few hours for you to figure it out but I have no complaints; it actually makes me even more impressed with you."

Gwen still hadn't gotten over the shock that he would be asking her out. She remembered an incident at her old school, the captain of the football team asked her out, only for it to a bet where who ever lost was to go out with her for three days.

But she knew he was different; he was kind, calm, intelligent, but even within the first two days of school she had noticed some girls approach him, ones defiantly more attractive and feminine then herself. So why would he want to go out with a tomboyish bookworm like her.

Her hands tightened a bit on that notebook of his, unconsciously shaking a little as well. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be so quick," he expected that's why she wasn't looking so good, "if you want I'll ask you again next week."

"I-It's not that," she used the notebook to hide her face from him, something like this just didn't bring up any good memories, "I'm just curious as to why."

His eyes looked around the room, like if completely baffled by her question. "What do you mean why? Why wouldn't I want to ask you out? Your very smart, athletic, determined," his snow white cheeks started to show a faint amount of red, "not to mention you are a good dancer, I'm guessing you have also taken ballroom before."

She started to blush as well. "I've taken it for three years."

"Then how about we work on our project tonight, tomorrow after school we can head to a restaurant of your choosing," he smiled, "my treat."

She was finally able to get a hold of herself, but she still kept that notebook up; she didn't want to show him how read her face was. "Sure, that sounds like a good idea. But right now let's focus on our project."

He nodded. "Sounds like a plain," watching as she flipped through his notebook, "oh I also added some rumors on the pyramids as just for fun facts. Some people believe that the Pyramids of Giza were built with the help of either Alien Technology or some kind of Sorcery, wouldn't that be interesting if either of those actually existed?"

The orange-haired Spellcaster could only chuckle nervously to that question, if he only knew that he was friends with an alien, not to mention the sorceress sitting only a few feet away from him. "Yeah, that would be interesting if something like that existed."

* * *

Later that evening, it was Ben's turn to help out with dinner as he peeled the potatoes over the sink. He felt like he could be doing more important things if he was just allowed to tell his parents about the Omnitrix.

So he just grumbled under his breath, feeling like his hands would smell like potatoes for the next week; he was a decent cook, everything he made was edible and tasted all right, but he just didn't like that smell lingering on his hands. "You might be complaining now Benji, but with this you will make a great husband to your loving wife if you can cook," his mother couldn't help but comment; he swore that she must have had super hearing or something, a trait that had to come with being a mother. He then made a face behind her back, but she was quick to comment, "I saw that."

He wouldn't be surprised if there was an eye hidden behind that long brown hair of hers. He finished pealing that third potato that would be used for his mom's world famous mash potatoes, well that's what she called them; they weren't bad but she always liked to exaggerate.

And here was another clear case of that exaggeration of hers. "By the way, when are you going to marry Ren so I can have an adorable daughter?"

Ever since Ben introduced the girl his mother instantly wanted to adopt her, stating how she always wanted to have an adorable daughter. She was the main reason it was so easy for them to accept that Ren was an exchange student from Japan. But ever since then she has been asking her son time and time again for him to marry her, this annoyed him. "Mom, I'm only fourteen; I'm not getting married anytime soon."

Her arms quickly wrapped up behind him and hugged him tightly; another annoying trait of a mother must be that quick stealth of hers; she being one of the few people that could sneak up on him like that. "Come on, Benji, do this one little favor for your young loving caring mother that brought you into this world."

_Like that isn't the first time you used that card._ Ben rolled his eyes, wanting to at least get dinner done sometime this century. "I think I smell smoke," he lied.

"Oh the ham!" his mother's energy made a kid with ADD look calm, quickly letting go to rush over to the oven; opening it to see everything was fine. Ben couldn't help but let out a chuckle, that trick always worked.

"Hey Benji," his mom called while tending to the ham, "can you go inform my future adorable daughter that dinner will be ready soon."

Ben rolled his eyes; there was just no way in stopping her. "All right mom."

* * *

He walked up the stairs, still annoyed from his mother's usual antics; only stopping as he reached the closed door of their housemate at the end of the hall, knocking thrice. "Hey Ren," he announce, "my mom wanted me to tell you that dinner will be ready soon."

He waited for a few seconds but he didn't get a reply, so he knocked harder twice. "Are you awake, Ren?"

Still no answer, but before he could knock again her voice called out. "I'm awake... Ben."

"Did you hear me though, my mom told me to tell you dinner will be ready soon," Ben repeated, wondering if she was all right. Ever since she got some mail from Sphinx Corp. she had been in her room, "are you feeling all right? Can I help with anything?"

"No... I'm all right... I'll be down... in a minute," Ben heard her emotionless tone clearly through the wall; however even though he didn't see her eyes, he somewhat felt like she wasn't. Was this something she could do or just a gut instinct of his? Either way there was nothing else he could do about it now so he left her in peace.

Ren just sat barefooted on her bed, still in her school uniform as she has yet to change out of them; her scarlet eyes continuously scanned the lines of this letter sent to her through the Earth postal system, a message from Sphinx Corp. that said.

**Congratulations, you have been hand-picked to try out a new procedure from Sphinx Corp. After some research we have discovered you are suffering from a rare muscle deficiency in the face and throat; with this procedure we might be able to rejuvenate those muscles. Please call the number below by September the 7****th**** if you are interested in helping out with the project. For cooperating you will be paid $1,000 upfront. Please have a good day and hope to hear from you soon.**

Ren moved up her right hand to feel her emotionless face; what would this procedure do; would her face be able to express emotions? Will her face finally be able to make a smile?

* * *

Gwen slowly opened her eyes to her bright room; already nearly blinded as her light was still on. All she could remember was concentrating on writing the report while Alex was working on their model of the Pyramids. They were both so focused on their side of the project they hardly spoke a sentence to each other.

She was typing on her computer; reaching eight pages when she started to feel her eyes getting heavy, already past six hours since they started and almost completed it. The sorceress would rub her eyes every other minute; she finished with the report but when she went to auto check it was the last thing she remembered.

Her back felt so uncomfortably stiff; obviously it wasn't a bright idea to fall asleep sitting up against the wall. But as soon as her eyes started to adjust she watched as Alex was still there, so she was probably only asleep for about a half-hour.

The orange-haired girl's body still didn't want to move, she must have been more tired then she realized; so she just watched as Alex would pace back and forth, cleaning up the material he was using to build the model. From the slit she was looking through with her right eye the model itself was pretty impressive; well structured, detailed, and measured; he really put every minute to good use.

After he cleaned all the scraps and picked up all the tools, he walked over to her bed. There he took one of her two pillows and the top blanket before heading over to where she sat.

Gently he moved her head back to place the pillow, being careful as not to disturb her. During this she was fighting the urge to blush as he covered her with the blanket. She started to wonder if she was only dreaming, a dream she didn't want to wake from.

With that, before he walked out of her room he turned off her light and softly closed the door, making sure he didn't wake her up. Once the door closed, she held onto that blanket tightly, wondering if she should move back to her bed just yet.

* * *

Electricity still continued to course through the body of the alien warlord, the word stop didn't seem to be in this species vocabulary; burn marks all over his arms and upper chest while his wrists were flowing with what seemed to be his blood. Yet compared to all he has been through that chuckle in the shadows was the one thing that ticked him off the most.

"My my Vilgax, you seem to be so very active at such a late hour," Pharaoh chuckled again, this dark chuckle started to drive the warlord mad, "and look what you have been up to, this can't do if you are to be a worthy test subject."

"Once I have freed myself from this containment Pharaoh I will snap you in two," no matter what shape he was in, or position he seemed to be in, this alien would never let up, "enjoy every breathe you take till I take your life."

"Well Vilgax I would believe you, but you seem to be more bark then bite at the moment," he chuckled once again, sounding worse then claws on a steel wall to Vilgax's ears, "I was thinking of giving you some freedom so we can play a friendly game of chess, but I'm going to guess you lead your armies with more brawn then brains."

The one thing Vilgax hated more then anything, was when someone believed that they were superior to him; but what made it worse was there was a human before him claiming to be; pulling at his binds just to be shocked relentlessly again. "Oh, did I hit a soft spot; sorry for doing so I was just thinking aloud. But it looks like you will need some work done if you will be any use to me."

That was the last straw to this warlord, this earthling that wasn't even brave enough to step out of the shadows was considering using him as a pawn; he who led armies to destroy countless lives and planets was going to use HIM. "There is no way I will ever be lowered as to work for you! Once I am free I will personally crush every bone in your body till you are nothing but dust!"

Pharaoh didn't seem to have a hint of fear while standing before this behemoth; you could just tell he was smiling while in the shadows. "Oh well, that pride of yours will be your downfall, Vilgax," he held out his snow-white hand from the shadows, holding a small pallid remote-control shaped devise, "but I will need you to sleep for now, wouldn't want you to harm that body of yours any further, your brain on the other hand couldn't be any more useless, I wouldn't mind if you were to smash your head against the slab."

Pushing a button on the controller, a large needle injected the alien in the arm; in a few seconds the creature was fast asleep.

The head of Sphinx Corp. pulled out his cell phone as he walked out of the room, instructing his head scientist to try their new radical procedures on his guest; he finally found a ginnie pig for the company's Super Soldier project.

But once he relaxed in the chair in his office, before even giving himself time to enjoy that leather chair of his he turned on his computer. The eerily glow in that dark room revealed a smile on his face; such a dark sadistic grin it was, a smile which could easily be matched to or even surpass Vilgax's personality.

A familiar face was plastered on his screen, that of the young Ren. All she would have to do was accept the procedure and a large portion of his plan would be complete; she was a much easier target then Ben but he also had another, more enjoyable, reason for picking her.

Clicking on another folder, Gwen's picture appeared on his screen. Now he did have her and Alex transferred to that school so the boy would get to know her, placing him in all of her same classes to do so; but he didn't intend for the teen to fall in-love with her, would this hinder or help out his plan to use the little witch.

Oh well, only time will tell; that and some extra help.

To Be Continued

Ben and Ren still won't confess to each other, Alex has confessed to Gwen, and Sphinx Corp. is still watching from the shadows; what will happen to the Tennyson family when everything collides? Read and review to find out.

P.S. I wrote this chapter before the Live-Action movie, the reason why Ben's mother acts and looks different.


	5. Gwen’s fear Ren’s decision

Chapter 5: Gwen's fear Ren's decision

Already a week has past in the city of Bellwood and everything seems to be going smoothing for the Tennyson family. Gwen and Alex's project went off without a hitch, getting the highest grade in the class for it and even extra credit for all the detail they added to it. With this they have even gotten dubbed the nickname the Top Couple of school.

They even have been officially dating since last week, nothing much has really happened besides hanging out and doing their homework; but neither one was complaining, as long as they were in each other's company.

Ben and Ren were as close as ever, but neither one is willing to admit their feelings for each other. Ren was also still thinking over that procedure from Sphinx Corp., she liked how she was now, but it would be nice to be able to express emotions like the species around her; she still had another five days to make up her mind.

At this moment, Alex was sitting in a dark room; the only light was shown on the chess board as he moved his white Knight out to take his opponent's Rook. "So far everything is all right in school dad; all of my homework is A+ while already finished with reports that are due next week."

The snow-white hand escaped the shadows to move his black Bishop back two spaces, getting Alex's King in Check. "Check," the dark voice announced; retreating his hand back into the shadows. "I know you wouldn't disappoint me there; but what about this Gwen you can't stop talking about, is everything all right with her; especially since you're taking her out dancing for your one week anniversary?"

The reason why they played in the shadows was to focus on the game at hand and the other senses beside sight; listing to the conversation, breathing patterns, and how they played the game. Alex moved his Queen, not only getting himself out of check but putting his father in Check. "Check," the cracking of his knuckles clearly heard, his voice pattern sounding nervous, "well I keep getting impressed with her more and more everyday; she is nothing like the girls I have met before: strong-willed, adventurous, determined, very intelligent; but so far we've only just went out, do our homework, and hold hands, am I moving too slow?"

His father then moved his Knight to take Alex's Queen, getting himself out of Check. "You know the term slow and steady wins the race doesn't just refer to a footrace; it's a reference to things in life. It was all right for you to be quick to ask her out, don't want to just live day after day wondering of her answer; but you don't need to move too quickly in a relationship, you're still very young and have plenty of time. So just relax and be yourself around her and I bet everything will turn out fine."

Alex then moved his Rook, announcing. "Checkmate."

"It looks like I will have to stop going easy on you from now on," the dark voice chuckled, "now head to school, you know the second rule besides family comes first."

The young teen rubbed his head. "What does sex before marriage or being intimate with another partner while in a relationship being vile unforgivable acts have to do with this conversation?"

The man in the shadows chuckled. "Opps, I meant the third rule."

Alex nodded in the shadows. "Always be early so to never be late."

* * *

Even though everything seems all right with the Tennyson family, something strange has been happening within the town of Bellwood. A string of deaths have been happening all over the city, all of them of natural causes, registered as heart attacks. 

However, even though they were heart attacks it didn't sit right with a good portion of the city, since most of the heart attacks happened with that of teenagers, in the act of indiscretions. Some even accused that it might have been a virus caused by Sphinx Corp., this all happening right after they came into business but there was no justifiable proof to even suggest the company was a suspect.

Nevertheless, some good news came out of Sphinx Corp. It was something that Gwen's father was working on called the Ra Battery. This battery would replace the need on Nuclear and Petroleum types of energy; it was easily rechargeable and clean for the environment. At the moment this battery was being tested in the homes, businesses, and cars of the people in Bellwood but if the testing goes without a flaw it would soon be replacing the need for crude oil all over the world; something the planet desperately needed.

So obviously, Gwen was in an extra cheerful mood today, not only her father helped create a new power supply but she was going to be celebrating her first week anniversary with her official boyfriend after school, she could hardly contain herself sometimes; that smile rarely leaving her face even with Ben's usual insults.

Yet this new happiness and cheeriness started to make Ben ill to be around his cousin, not that her sarcastic and bookworm personality didn't also make him sick but this new one was just too sickly sweet. "Ugh Gwen, you can stop with that cheery personality of yours," he stated to his humming cousin as he sat with Ren at their lunch table, "I only want to see my lunch once today."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Well if you don't like it go sit somewhere else."

Ren looked around the cafeteria, then back over at Gwen. "Where is Alex... anyway?"

"He told me his Future Business Leader's Club needed to meet briefly after class, he should be here any minute," her body shook all over with energy, "I can't believe I'm saying this but I can't wait till after school today!"

Their alien friend looked down at her food, is this how one would feel if they found a potential mate? She looked so happy and cheerful. Unaware of her glass of water starting to shake as she wondered how different it would feel if she did tell Ben.

Ben then smirked at his cousin. "Just curious, what do you think would happen if he found out about," he whispered, "you know what?"

The chipper attitude instantly vanished when she heard that, never thinking anything about that. Would it ever really come up, would he still be with her if she did tell him, or would he think she was a freak and believe she was a child of Satan just for having these powers? She knew he wasn't that narrow minded or overly religious but the idea still scared her. "I'm sure," she started to rub her arms, like if she was suddenly very cold, "he would understand."

"Who will understand what, Gwen?" Alex's voice caused her to jump in her seat, shocking the teen in white a little. "I'm sorry Gwen, did I scare you?"

Those thoughts were still plaguing her mind, but for the moment she put up a fake smile, not wanting to spoil what she had at the moment. "No not at all, I was just thinking of what we are going to be doing after school today."

Even with that smile on her face, he could easily tell that something was troubling her; but if she didn't want to go into it at the moment he had no right to pry. So he just smiled in return and let it go for the time being. "It's a secret."

With Alex and Gwen enjoying their conversation, Ren was deep in thought. The ways of earthlings were still so very strange to her. If she was to tell Ben, would he just leave her later on for another female, do a horrid act like this divorce as they call it, or maybe even have another relationship while being with her; why would Earthlings even do such things.

Yet she wondered, would that be the case if she could express emotions clearer to him, the idea of that procedure from Sphinx Corp. in her mind. So deep in thought she snapped out of it when her glass of water just shattered, shocking the people around her.

Her face might not have shown it, but she was completely terrified; did she just do that? "See I told you there is something with the water here," Ben boosted, always having some crazy thing to say when it came to the food around school, this luckily drove attention away from Ren.

Once the cafeteria quickly got back to normal Ben looked over at her; her face didn't show an ounce of emotion but her body was shaking all over. "Ren," his voice full of concern, "are you all right, did the glass cut you?"

Quickly he grabbed her hand that was closest to the accident, seeing a faint line of red trickling down the back of her snow-white hand. "You're bleeding Ren," his tone full of concern, "you need to get to the nurses office."

Even though the injury to her hand was minimal at best, Ben would always want to help her anyway possible. Her body always felt so warm when he would do that, she knew from that he cared about her. "Do you know... where it is?"

Ben chuckled, rubbing the back of his head with a large smile on his face. "Back when this school had a baseball team I had a personal bed saved for me there."

"Ah Ben," Gwen cut in, "that's not something you would want to be proud of."

The alien hero mocked his cousin before leading the blue haired alien out of the cafeteria, Alex could only smile from that teens actions. "You might say he is a pain but he is a good guy all-in-all."

"If you say so," Gwen giggled, she knew her annoying cousin was a good guy but you would never hear her say it.

* * *

Gwen eagerly waited at her home, wearing a simple one-piece purple dress with matching arm-length gloves and high-heel shoes. Felt a little much for just a week anniversary but that's just how Alex was, one of the things she liked about him. 

However even though she liked him her father was completely skeptical about the guy, stating something like teenage boys only have one thing on their mind to being a bad boy in disguise; but at the end it was pretty obvious what he meant, and that was his little girl was growing up way too fast before his eyes.

She giggled a little, she would always be daddy's little girl to him yet she also was a teenager. Sitting on the couch in her den where her mother was eagerly awaiting her date's arrival with a camera seemingly glued in her hands. "My little girl has grown up into such a beautiful women, I can't wait to take so many pictures."

On the other hand, compared to her dad her mother was thrilled; embarrassing her when she kept trying to show him her baby pictures or tell him some story of when she was a child. Gwen's face flustered. "Mom, you don't need to take a lot of pictures."

"But it's your first week anniversary with your first boyfriend, I need to get lots of pictures to remember this occasion," she cheered while remembering to put on the flash, not wanting to miss a single minute of her precious daughter's life, "so when is the knight in white armor going to take my lovely princess to her ball?"

Gwen flustered yet tried her best to hide it. "Well it is ten minutes past seven, so probably any minute now," he said he would be there by seven-thirty but he would always show up early, either it being school or their dates.

"Such a good boy he is, it is the sign of a gentleman that one is either early or on-time," Gwen's mother twirled a strand of her short orange hair, "oh to be young again."

Gwen rolled her eyes, you would never guess that this cheerful women before her was one of the best lawyers within the city of Bellwood; the daughter groaned. "Don't you have to get to work soon?"

Her mother smiled. "Just paperwork and other legal mumbo jumbo back at the office; but right now all my time is going towards my daughter's special occasion," she giggled, "and how else can I do that then by taking lots of pictures."

Before Gwen could let out another groan, there was a knock at the door. "Oh I bet that is him right now," her mother skipped to the door while Gwen rubbed her head; she knows her mother means well but when she gets like this there is no stopping her; hoping she wouldn't do this when she had a child.

Her mother opened the door to see Alex standing before her, dressed in a, what else, white ballroom outfit and holding a single white rose; taking off his East Coast Swing hat and bow to the lady of the house. "Hello Mrs. Tennyson, I'm glad to see you again."

The mother let out a delightful squeal. "Oh you are so polite," she quickly took a few pictures of the young boy, "please come in, you don't want to keep a lady in waiting."

"I should say not," he chuckled with that smile on his face before stepping inside the house, where he was instantly struck with a case speechlessness when he saw Gwen there in that lovely attire; his snow-white face quickly turning a shade of red.

"Looky here honey, you struck him speechless," the mother cheered as she took a few pictures, defiantly wanting to get a shot of this scene.

Gwen couldn't help but fluster a little bit as well, she knew that she was attractive in this dress but she didn't think she was that attractive; tapping her right foot on the floor. "D-Do you like, Alex?" like she even needed to ask.

Once he gathered himself, Alex coughed twice. "You look wonderful," he managed to keep calm, holding out the single white rose for her, "I hope you like as well."

She accepted the rose, clutching it close to her chest in her hands. "It's lovely," the orange-haired girl smiled, she never felt her face so hot before.

"Oh you two look so cute together!" the mother cheered, taking picture after picture of this adorable scene. "Now come on you two, stand side by side and give me a nice smile.

Gwen just went along with it; standing on Alex's left side and smiled along with him. After a blinding flash they both rubbed their eyes. "Oh this is so going straight into the photo album," the sorceress's mother stated as she looked at the photo on the small screen.

"I know Gwen's curfew is eleven on weekdays but I will try to get her back by ten ten-thirty," Alex informed his girlfriend's mother, this would be the first time they would be going out at night and he didn't want to impose.

Gwen's mother giggled from his tone. "All right, but if anything is to happen to my daughter I will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law," only she could say that with a smile on her face. She might have been kidding but Gwen knew her mother would do so in a heartbeat.

A nervous chuckle escaped the young daughter where Alex was still giving off that smile of his. "That won't be a problem."

"Good, then go have fun you two!" her mother cheered.

With that they took their leave from her house, just for her eyes to be bug-eyed at the sight before her. "You rented a limo!?"

Alex chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah... I rented it."

She wrapped arms around his tightly, leaning her head on his shoulder. "You know you didn't need to do all this just for our week anniversary, one month anniversary maybe; half a year, defiantly."

"I'm a bit new to this dating thing, so I hope you will forgive me," he smiled down at her.

She giggled a little. "Depends what kind of beverages in the limo, then I will think about it."

* * *

Once again, Ren stayed in her room after studying with Ben, that incident earlier at lunch still plaguing her mind. Did she really cause that glass to break, what would Ben's parents think of her if this happens again, exposing herself as an alien. 

If this was her fault, what if she wasn't able to control it and harms someone close to her; was this because of all of these new experiences this planet had to offer or all the troubling thoughts on the earthling's relationships. The idea of separating from a mate scared her more then anything, on her planet something like that would be worse then death, how could one live without the mate who they have performed the Ritual of One Life with? But from what she saw from her research it seemed like on this planet it happened at least sixty percent of the time, how could humans take it so lightly?

Clutching her hands on her head, her heart hadn't stopped throbbing loudly between her ears since that incident. But she also took this time to see if her theory was true, was that incident caused by these dark feelings she had.

Staring at that plastic red pen on her desk with her emotionless scarlet eyes, seeing it starting to shake; with that part of the theory confirmed she focused on it with more intensity, the harder she focused the more it started to shake, the more those dark emotions pained her.

Then all of a sudden, the pen she was staring at just exploded, snapping out of her state only to be completely terrified, holding onto the pillow tightly in her arms. Her whole body was shaking uncontrollably, closing her eyes just for that procedure to appear in her mind.

Maybe if she was able to express her emotions another way she wouldn't have to worry about this. She didn't want to feel that coldness again if this family was to leave her like her old one, that long painful cold where not even the heat from a sun could warm her body up.

But a knocking on her door shot her eyes wide open. "Ren," Ben's voice calmed her nerves, her body always felt calm when she was near him or heard his voice, "are you all right, I thought I head something."

Even though he couldn't see it, she unconsciously nodded her head. "I am... fine Ben."

Her tone was the same emotionless tone, but something about it just didn't settle with him. There was no reason for him not to trust her however he just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. "Ren," his tone full of uncertainty, "you know if there is anything on your mind, you can talk to me right? I am always here for you when you need me."

With that simple sentence, her body stopped shaking; Ben was always so kind to her. "Yes I do... thank you," she replied, holding the pillow gently in her arms.

The alien hero relaxed as well, the doubt in the air seemed to have lifted for the moment. "All right, I'm right down the hall if you need anything."

After that she heard his footsteps walking towards his room her mind was made up, pulling out the message and pressed the number on her cell phone.

* * *

Gwen couldn't believe her eyes when they arrived; he brought her to a ballroom dance hall that was accepted to all ages. There was nice music, snacks on the tables, and people dancing from the ages of five to sixty. Even though she was expecting maybe a restaurant of some kind there was no reason to complain, she absolutely loved it. 

She hadn't been to a dance like this since she started taking ballroom. Still a little shocked that this is where their anniversary date would be. "I'm glad you enjoy our one-week anniversary, but I hope we can dance instead of watching everyone else having fun," Alex joked, holding out his hand where she accepted and was lead out onto the dance floor.

They started just as the Waltz number 'Hopelessly Yours' started to play; once in the hold Alex seemed to notice something was off: her frame wasn't as sturdy as it usually was in P.E. and with that first step she nearly tripped, something else must have been on her mind.

Gwen knew she wasn't performing as well as she could, what Ben said to her at lunch still beset her mind. This teen she was dancing with was so kind and caring, but how would he act if he found out she had this power: would he start avoiding her, be scared of her, or just leave her all together. Even though she would never use these powers to harm another person or summon something like a demon she knew how most people thought; ones who perform magic must either perform black magic or some ties with Satan. Both of those ideas couldn't have been farther from the truth; it's like stating owning a gun must mean you're going to commit a robbery or are involved with a gang.

But it was no time to think of something like that now, she had little less then two hours before heading back home and she was going to enjoy every minute of it; letting Alex lead the way.

* * *

However no matter how wonderful this starry night was, she just couldn't shake the thought out of her head; like the sound of nails continuously scratching a chalkboard in her mind; it was just starting to get too painful as she sat at her table. 

She snapped out of her train of thought with the feeling of something cold pressed against the bare part of her arm, turning to see Alex holding a Lemon-Lime Cola in his hand for her. "Thank you," she tried to keep up a smile, but it was starting to get just too hard.

Even though Alex didn't like to pry, he knew he had to intervene in some way. "You don't look so good Gwen, how about we go for a walk; the fresh air might help."

A walk in the warm night air did sound pleasant at the time. "That sounds nice," she answered while accepting his hand out.

* * *

They walked arm and arm till they stopped on top of a bridge; the moon so bright in the warm summer sky that it was hard to see the other stars around it. Alex was right, this was helping. 

As she looked down from the bridge, it was at least seventy feet up from the current below; no way one could survive if you fell from this height; the sounds of the moving water also very calming to her, easily hearing them echo all the way up where she was.

But Alex broke the silence with his caring voice. "Gwen, is everything all right with you? You seemed offly distracted back there."

She should have known she couldn't hide anything from his keen observation skills. "It's nothing really," she couldn't help but lie, what was she going to say; 'I was just distracted by the fact I'm a witch,' she didn't think it would work so well after that, "it is just all of this is so new to me," she smiled, "I'm just trying to take all the fun in, it's exhausting."

Alex rubbed the back of his head. "I know what you mean, I'm new to this dating thing as well," he then looked into her exquisite green eyes with his pure ocean blue ones, "I'm sorry if I am moving too fast. You know you can tell me anything, right?"

Why did he have to look at her with those eyes of his, it was hard enough for her to keep up a defense but now her legs were starting to feel like wet noodles again and her face becoming a little warm.

But before she could say anything, the two were interrupted by a small group a thugs, already surrounding the couple. "My my look at this," the heavy set one stated, an annoying 'I'm better then you' grin clearly across his peach fuzzed face, "don't you think you two are out quite past your bed time?"

Even though Gwen could see that they were outnumbered three to one (for people that aren't good at math that would be 2x36 thugs), she knew she could probably handle them, she didn't take martial arts from the age of six for nothing.

However, before Gwen could even make a move, Alex was calmly handing over his wallet, but not before Gwen noticed him taking the picture of his sister out first. "This is all the money we have," even though any normal person would be terrified at the presents of these thugs towering over them, he stayed perfectly calm, not even a hint of fear in his voice, "please take it and leave, we don't want any trouble."

Not only did the thug swipe his wallet, but pushed him aside as well. The thug pulled out the money and not only were the thugs shock, so was Gwen, all five bills were crisp C-Notes. "Dude, this kid must be loaded."

Gwen helped Alex back on his feet when another thug quickly grabbed the orange-haired Tennyson by the arms and held them tightly behind her. "How about we let you go, and your girlfriend here stays with us for some fun."

Before Gwen could retaliate, the man holding her went flying till his back slammed on the pavement ten feet away. Alex returned his leg back to his side; that calm smile still on his face. "Rule number four to live by: any act to harm women or children is unforgivable."

Everyone was a bit stunned around him, even Gwen; she didn't even know what had happened till he returned his leg back to his side. There seemed to be more to Alex then what meets the eyes. "You going to let this little twerp get away with attacking our friend, let's show him who's boss!"

They all agreed, charging at the two teens but it was Gwen's time to have some fun; this being just the medicine she needed to get her mind off those dark thoughts: grabbing one of the thugs by the arm and throwing him over her on his back. "I see you're skilled at fighting as well," Alex replied peacefully, even while he was blocking the bombarding attacks from two with only his left hand, "it is good to learn something new every day."

"Yes, I will have to agree," her tone sounding more cheerful, even as she blocked a punch which was easy to counter. These guys had no fighting style whatsoever, probably believing their height and weight alone could get them what they wanted.

That was defiantly not the case when it came to these teens, hardly breaking a sweat to counter their attacks. After just a few minutes of that, the heavy set one threw the wallet back at the teen in white before running off with the rest of his friends.

Gwen cracked her knuckles in triumph. "Those idiots didn't know who they were messing with," she boosted, a bit startled when she did, almost sounding like her dweeb of a cousin; that time at GEA with him was probably longer then she realized.

Alex picked up his wallet, put the picture back in and returned it back to his pocket. "I agree, one should never judge a book by its cover; but I must ask when did you start taking martial arts?"

She smiled. "Since I was six, I was a bit of a rough child around school at that age and my parents thought it would be a better way for me to focus my energy."

"So you can dance and fight," Alex stated cheerfully, "I think I might have fallen in love with you all over again."

There was no chance she could keep down her blush after a comment like that, rapidly tapping her right foot on the ground.

However while all of this was going on, the thug kicked early started to get up; flipping out a switch-blade as seeing their conversation a perfect time to attack. Quickly dashing over with his knife out in front and the girl's back a perfect target.

At the last second, Alex noticed this and pushed Gwen out of the way; thinking at the same time how he could have left his guard down so easily. Alex managed to kick the thug in side but his reaction time was off, causing him to lose his balance and hit his back against the railing, sending the teen in white over the side.

The thug only ran off as to Gwen's horror she rushed to the railing; she couldn't believe her eyes as she saw Alex falling to what will soon be his watery grave.

She knew she had no choice; there was just no way around it now. Extending her right arm out to him with tears burning down the side of her face, she said. "Spheros Echanenis!"

To Be Continued

It will be hard for Gwen to hide it now, how will Alex react and what will Ren go through with that Procedure from Sphinx Corp.? All will be explained in the next chapter of Hero High: Earth Style so read and review.

PS: it will be awhile before I update again, I just haven't gotten the feeling to write lately. But once I do I'm going to update all of my stories at once.


	6. New Situations, New Disasters

Chapter 6: New Situations, New Disasters

The green orb successfully surrounded Alex moments before he would have hit that watery grave, but she didn't know to either be happy that she was able to save him or to be terrified of what was to come when she brought him back up. Those tears of uncertainty wouldn't stop burning down her cheeks.

Why did this all have to happen here and now, she was having a great time with a kind and intelligent guy on her one week anniversary: dancing, being in each other's company, and going for a nice walk. But now, all of this might be destroyed before her eyes because of what she was, would she even be able to face him once he was back up on the bridge.

Well, it was now or never once he was back up on the bridge; his shocked expression clearly plastered on his face even before she got rid of the ball. Wrapping her arms around her chest, her body feeling like a freezing breezed just past by her and her alone.

It took about a minute for Alex to regain his composer, wondering how something like this could have happened. He looked over at Gwen, taking a step closer but he noticed she took a step back. Those gorgeous eyes of hers filled with nothing but pure fear and uncertainty; so he called out. "G-Gwen?"

But as soon as he broke the silence, she couldn't stand it; not wanting to even hear the chance of what she thought he was going to say to her so she ran off in the other direction. It didn't matter where as long as it was away from him, she couldn't bring herself to look at him face to face.

"Gwen! Wait up!" she could hear Alex calling out to her. In her mind she wanted to stop but her body made her legs run faster, a bit hard to do in the shoes she was in.

However Alex was faster; already caught up to her and stopped her by grabbing onto her arm; making sure not too tight, he didn't want to hurt her. "Gwen, calm down; please talk to me," he pleaded, even with what just happened he didn't want to jump to conclusions. "Why did you run away like that?"

The orange-haired teen's body wouldn't stop shaking, doing all she could not to look at him; it would just be too painful right now. "Gwen," he let go of her arm, glad to see she didn't run off when he did, "please tell me what's going on, what just happened back there?"

Quickly, she turned to face him, looking into those pure ocean blue eyes of his with her watery green; her whole body still shivering. "You can tell already can't you?" her tone was both hysterical and horrified, by now guessing what Alex was thinking. "I'm a Witch! I have powers, I can use magic! Go ahead already, tell me I'm a freak, don't hide your contempt for what I am!"

Even after saying those things her body wouldn't stop trembling; her mind processing everything he could do from calling her a witch and running away to getting the city to burn her at the stake. Only what he would do next would tell her everything.

Except from anything she thought he would do, he did the exact opposite; grabbing her by the arms, pulling her close and hugged her tightly, warmly. With all these emotions coursing through her mind her body just broke down; soaking his shoulder while the only way she was able to stand was because of his strong hug. Gwen truly didn't know what to think right now.

"Why would I want to call you such horrid things, Gwen?" his voice was calm, starting to soothe her body and mind; feeling his hand rub the back of her head tenderly. "I think I might have fallen for you all over again."

One after the other, he kept stating comments that were completely opposite to what she was expecting he would say; how could she even deserve someone like him, wrapping her arms tightly around him, her body finally stopped quivering. "Is this why you have been acting so strange today; you thought I would just out you like that if I found out about your wonderful gift?"

Her voice wasn't working at the moment, so she only nodded. "Well I do see your way of thinking from such religious nuts and people who just wish to be oblivious to the unknown," he hugged her a little tighter on that bright night, "but I want to know all I can about you. To show you I mean it, I also have a secret I will tell you."

She looked up into those pure ocean blue eyes of his, feeling warm once again. "My father isn't a Lawyer or any member of a law-firm, I really shouldn't be telling you this but my father is actually the CEO to Sphinx Corp."

She actually backed away from him from hearing that, all along the teen she has been dating is worth in the billions. It was almost unbelievable to hear; well besides her being a witch, so at this moment anything could be believable. "My father wanted me to keep that a secret not only because he likes his privacy but because he wanted me to make friends that will like me for reasons other then I can buy anything they ever wanted."

He smiled that warm smile of his at her. "I just hope from now on you won't just like me because I'm wealthy."

Gwen could feel her voice returning to her, shaking her head. "How about we," she rubbed her eyes with her arm, still feeling some moister on the rims, "head back to the dance, we don't have much time till I have to get home."

"Now that sounds like a good idea," he held out his hand to her, which she graciously accepted.

* * *

The group of thugs could only groan and mope about getting beat by two teens, it was embarrassing to their group; wishing they could get their revenge on those twerps. 

But the sounds of high heels broke up their discussion, turning to see a mid-twenties woman standing before them, wearing a dark brown business suit and glaring at the teens. They knew who this African-American woman was; not only was she the person that made the public appearances for the CEO of Sphinx Corp. but came to them with a job offer earlier this morning. "You incompetent morons," her cold voice informed, not holding back any of her harsh intent, "you were given the simple task to provoke the girl in question and not only did you not accomplish that assignment you nearly got an innocent civilian killed."

The heaviest of the group just groaned her off. "You could have mentioned that she was some-kind of martial arts expert."

"So are we going to get the money?" the tallest one of the group asked, obviously not very bright.

"Not only are you waste of life not getting paid, but my boss sees you all as a liability, and for that you will be terminated," she grinned, "a white rose will be left at your wake."

A smug grin came across the group. "Hey even if you are a martial arts expert like the girl before, taking on all of us on our turf, you've got guts."

However, before any of them could get up, their THOTH's started to glow red; shortly afterwards they grabbed onto their chests, grasping for any breath before collapsing on the ground like the trash they were. Neith grinned. "Easier then writing a name in a notebook."

* * *

The clock struck twelve as Pharaoh watched the video from one of the company's satellites on his computer screen; the glow revealing him grinding his teeth not only at the sight of Alex falling off the bridge but Gwen's magic was blocked by the angle of the shot, all of that work for nothing. All he got was an image of the sphere disappearing, not even worth all the effort that was put in. 

Switching to another satellite image; if missing a chance to get some live action information on Gwen's abilities was bad, now Alex was even closer to her then before. "Geez, I wouldn't have transferred him to that school if he was going to fall in-love with the test subject."

However, once he fast forward and zoomed on the two when Alex hugged her tightly, his frown quickly turning into that sadistic grin of his. "Maybe this could all work out after all. I could easily use this new closeness of theirs to my own benefit."

Quickly, he opened a file on the Tennyson boy; so far with all of his planning he has yet to get any visual data of what those aliens were truly capable of; with his plans for Ren coming in this afternoon that added information could be of good use.

Pressing a button on his desk, he got the attention from the head scientist in his Military R&D Department. "Yes Pharaoh, what do you need?"

The glow from the computer screen still revealed that sadistic grin on his lips. "I think it is a perfect time to test out Project: FREAK; have Subjects: 029093, 028938, and 029001 ready for transport to the city of Bellwood; I want them to have some fun at 1600 hours today."

"But sir!" the head scientist exclaimed, "That is just a normal city, the cops won't be able to protect the people if they were to get out of control."

"Exactly, I think my investors will love to see where their money is going into; who cares if some lives are lost and some property is destroyed, that's what they were bred to do after all."

You could easily hear in the scientist's voice that he was still unsure of the idea, but this was a direct order from the CEO. "They will be prepped and ready to be tested on Bellwood."

"I will make sure I have my popcorn ready for the show," chuckling before he disconnected the line.

* * *

Another day already went by with Ben cleaning up his desk; school just seemed to fly by these days now that he understood the material. It was all thanks to Ren, he really needed to find someway to thank her for all she has done to help him; maybe take her out someplace to eat. 

However with that thought in mind Ben started to feel his face getting a bit hot, would that be something like a date. It would be nice for them to spend the day just the two of them outside of the house, maybe even gain the courage to ask her out officially.

After he was all cleaned up, he walked up to the desk in front of him; watching as Ren closed her briefcase. "H-Hey Ren," he didn't know why his throat all of a sudden felt so weird, like if something was tightening around it; coughing a few times to clear it up, "for helping with my school work, how about we head to the diner, my treat?"

She really liked that idea, wishing to be with him somewhere outside of the Tennyson home, yet she sadly already had something else scheduled for that afternoon. The blue haired alien wish she could tell him what she had to do but the people made her agree to what the humans called a 'Hush Order.' "I wish I... could, but I have to...," she really didn't feel right lying to Ben, a headache forming from her heart pounding in her head while a sickly pain grew in the pit of her stomach, "talk to the... teachers after... school."

This was the first time she ever lied to his face; a Hush Order was another thing she just didn't understand about the human race. It made her feel like something was crawling all over her skin even though no type of life form was on her. How were humans able to live with these strange feelings?

He smiled; this only made her feel worse. "It's all right; I'll just wait outside the school."

Ren slowly shook her head. "It will take... awhile. Please just head... home for now."

Ben started to wonder if he screwed up somehow; Gwen would often state that he would do something stupid without realizing it; maybe for once she was actually right. But for the moment he would just leave it alone, maybe she truly just had something to do after class. "Oh ok, see you at home then."

She could clearly hear the depression in his tone; it only made her feel even worse. But if she was to get this strange power of hers under control maybe this procedure would help. "Sayonara," she replied, this would also be the first time they wouldn't be walking home together, she hope this would be all worth it.

* * *

After shifting through her paperwork, Gwen closed up her backpack just as she felt a few soft taps on her shoulder. Looking behind she saw Alex looking down at her, still surprising her that he had no negative reaction towards her after finding out she was a witch; it actually felt like they were closer then ever because of it. "H-Hey Gwen," his tone sounded nervous to the young sorceress's ears, something that wasn't common with this teen in white, "w-would you like to come to m-my house today? I just got my house completely furnished." 

For such a simple question, why did she feel her face getting hotter? Not to mention this was the first time she would even see his house. "S-Sure," now her tone was sounding nervous; even though she knew he wasn't anything like her father would suggest he was it wouldn't stop the ideas from passing by her thoughts, "I have been interested in what your house looks like for a while now."

His unusual nervous nature disappeared with her answer, almost like he had the same ideas of what she would do if she found out he was extremely wealthy. She constantly wondered how was she able to find someone that was just this perfect, most of the time believing she wouldn't find an intellectual peer till her second year in a top University. "Glad to hear that, are you ready to go?"

Mentally she went over her to-do list in her head; once checking of the list she nodded. "Yup, just need to ask my cousin to call my parents when he gets home; don't want them to worry."

He chuckled; she always started to feel warm at the sound of his laughs. "Family should always come first; so let's find Ben and Ren."

Gwen also giggled a little, where ever Ben was Ren was usually right next to him; it was so hard to believe they still weren't dating. "Well there's no time to lose."

* * *

Gwen and Alex walked down the sidewalk, heading the other way then she usually did when heading home. It was strange that Ben and Ren left already; usually they waited so they could all walk home together. 

But Alex said she could call her parents once they reached his house; so they headed off, still curious about what his house looks like; from how kind he was you just would have never guessed he was that wealthy; probably believing in the stereotype of a rich person, just like she feared he would believe in the stereotype of a witch. Looks like the saying is true, you can't judge a book by its cover.

Yet she snapped out of her train of thought once the limo drove up next to them, where once it stopped he opened the door for her; such a gentleman he was. Somewhat wishing Ben would learn some manners from him instead of always opening the screen door on the Rustbucket but letting it slam in her face after he got on. "Why thank you kind sir," she couldn't help but giggle about when pretending to be of high-class.

Alex bowed to her with that warm smile on his face. "It is my pleasure," he also said in a high-class tone.

She giggled a little more before making her way into the vehicle. "Hello Carlson," she knew of Alex's driver since the other night, what a shock it was to her that Alex didn't rent the limo.

"Hello Miss. Tennyson," he joyfully replied, "it's good to see you again so soon."

"You don't need to be so formal, Carlson," Alex informed as he made his way into the limo, closing the door behind him.

"I'm sorry Mr. Sover... I mean Alex," his nervous nature was also amusing, "so what will you two be doing today?"

"Well first I want to personally show Gwen around the house," he then looked into her lovely green eyes with his heart-skipping blue ones, she couldn't help but let out a warm smile when he did that, "if you don't mind."

Like what else could she say? "I would love that."

"Well we will be at the house within ten minutes, Gwen," Carlson informed, "please enjoy the refreshments in the limo until we arrive."

The orange haired witch nodded. "Don't mind if I do."

* * *

Thanks to the transport Sphinx Corp. set up for Ren, there she stood outside of the main building. Its size was even greater to this alien as she just looked up at it, almost like it could break through the sky. 

But now being this close to Sphinx Corp, she noticed that it was linked up with three other smaller buildings; these were probably the Main Branch Companies: Andro, Hieroco and Crios. If she could remember correctly: Andro, the largest of the three, dealt with earthling medical care, Hieroco focused mainly on environmentally safe devises: that was the building Gwen's father worked in, and the smallest Crios focused more on earthling electronic entertainment.

Even though she thought for this procedure to commence it would be in the Andro Building, the instructions were clear for it to be in the main building of Sphinx Corp. Her body wouldn't stop shaking, hoping she wasn't getting her hopes up on this idea that her face will finally be able to smile; a thing she had wanted to do for Ben for so long.

It was now or never, with her appointment at four and it now three forty-seven; she took a deep breath, stood up straight, and made her way towards the main building; hoping that this would make up for lying like she had to.

* * *

Gwen was completely amazed from the tour of his huge mansion of a house; it was so amazing she would swear it would make the president envious. Not only was it located in a great area overlooking the city of Bellwood, it had an indoor and outdoor pool, the library of her dreams, a den with a TV so big it makes the Megaplex look small, a tennis court, and so many other places that had her head spinning. 

He was chuckling to her reaction of the tour; she still couldn't believe that this was his house, or this was a house at all; more like... she couldn't even think of anything; still too dumbfounded by this place to even speak.

Alex looked at the lovely teen with that smile on his face and rubbing the back of his head, a bit concern since he hasn't heard her speak for the past ten minutes "Gwen, you haven't said anything since we walked in, are you all right?"

She swallowed that hard lump she felt in her throat. "Yeah," the orange haired girl nearly yelled in excitement, even with all this right in front of her she couldn't believe it was really there. "So this is really your house?"

He could only try holding back his laughter, since he knew Gwen he has never see her this excited and energetic before; it was really funny to see. "Yes Gwen, this is really my house."

She knew she was overreacting a bit, oh who was she kidding she was completely overreacting; but this place was just so amazing it was hard to keep down her excitement. "So who else lives here besides your dad?"

It got silent for a moment after she asked that question, seeing Alex looking away from her before he answered. "No one else lives here besides me and my dad, so with dad always at work I'm practically here all by my self after the help leaves."

She almost felt like the energy was sucked out of her with his answer, probably looking away from her so she couldn't see the sad look on his face. Placing a reassuring hand on his back, this proved that money couldn't buy happiness. "Come on Alex," she tried to mask the sadness in her own tone with a smile on her face, there seemed to be more to Alex she still didn't understand, "you haven't showed me the kitchen yet and I am starting to get hungry."

Gwen heard him chuckling again, she was glad to hear his laugh again; turning to see that smile back on his face. "No problem, then we can head to the library and work on our school work," he held out his arm, "Chief Pierre will make a cuisine that will make your taste buds dance."

The witch really liked that idea, accepting his arm by wrapping hers around his with a warm smile on her face; his had to be contagious.

"Master Alex," a one of the boy's butler called out, holding out a phone to him, "you have a call."

He released his hold on the lovely tomboy to take the phone. "Thank you Bittermen, could you please take Gwen to the kitchen while I take this?"

The older gentleman bowed. "It will be my pleasure, Master Alex," where he then looked over at the young guest, she would be the first guess that had ever been over at the Sovereign house, "let us go young lady."

She wanted to stay by his side, but she wouldn't want to be a bother while he was on the phone. So she graciously accepted and let the butler lead the way but now feeling a bit lonely without Alex in that big house; making her wonder how he was able to deal with it.

* * *

There Ren laid on that cold steel slab of a bed, still in her school clothes which surprised her from all of the doctor shows they had out on earthling TV. While on that slab she felt like some strange creature was in the pit of her stomach trying to get its way out, another feeling she didn't like having. 

"Hello there Miss. Ren," she heard the voice boom over the speaker system just as a doctor and a nurse walked in. The voice was scrambled, wondering who could have been talking to her at the moment and why this person would need to scramble his voice. "It's not everyday my company is honored to see a Bucerusian."

Her face couldn't show it, but she was shocked and a bit scared. It also made her wonder what Sphinx Corp. had planned to do with that information. "How did you... find out?"

"The X-Rays we took of you before you were placed here," he replied quickly, "your body structure is actually quite amazing, besides for your head and heart in different places and your horns our bodies are exactly the same, even down to the part where you can mate and breed just like a human. So that is why you are perfect to test out the new muscle rejuvenation serum my company designed."

Even though she knew that this company was very big and had its hands in a lot areas, she never would have assumed that they new anything outside of their atmosphere. What else did this company know? "Your culture is also very interesting, very similar to that of this planet; except more focused on family, your emotions are out in the open if you know where to look, and your sexual attraction is based off the size of the horns. But enough on that as I will describe the procedure to you."

She could hear him take a deep breath as the doctors looked over their supplies, wondering if this might have been a mistake. "Don't worry; this will be a completely painless experience, not to mention you will be asleep for it anyway. Unlike most species think, you do have enough muscles in your body to freely express emotions, but because of the increased growth of your brain, which is at least two point five times as much as a normal human, certain key spots are pressing against your ribcage; hitting the spots where you can't move the muscles in your face and throat while also hitting another spot which increases adrenaline, explaining your unusual strength for someone as petite as you, and produces excessive carbon, depositing it through your forehead which makes your horns."

Ren was feeling so strange that this man she only knew through this speaker system seemed to know more about her species then she did herself; just who was this guy? "Now for the procedure to work the good doctor beside you will inject the serum Hathor 1653-6 into your face, neck and brain, that will rejuvenate your stone like muscle since you have yet to use them even before birth with a small current of electricity to activate it. In just an hour your face should be able to express emotions like any other human on this planet, yet if you want you can leave right now, you will still be paid in full."

The young blue alien haired girl felt very nervous about all of this now; eerie on how this man just knew so much of her species. However the wish to show emotions like anyone else trumped any doubt she had in her mind. "I am all... right."

"Good to hear," the voice replied just as the nurse attached the heart monitor to Ren's left arm, making a slight moan where she strapped it a little too tight, but loosened it as the doctor gently placed the gas mask over her mouth.

"Now please, just count down from ten," the good doctor requested from her. With each number she counted down from her body started to feel lighter, her eye lids felt heavier, and each second took longer to say then the last; making it to six before she was fast asleep.

Yet as soon as she was fast asleep, the doctor attached a wire to her Omnitrix, copying and downloading everything that was on it. "Good job Dr. Becker," the voice of Pharaoh informed, "I will have Dr. Animo look over the files, now let's see if the finalized Hathor 1653-6 works properly."

"Yes Pharaoh," the doctor replied. After grabbing the small glass vile of Hathor he injected the needle into it, filling the syringes about halfway before removing it.

Once he tapped the side a few times and squirted a few drops, making sure there were no air bubbles left in the medical devise; even a single one could prove lethal on any life form. During this time the nurse marked off the key points to where the needle would enter and was getting the strange devise that would send the current of electricity through those spots.

And with all of that, the procedure commenced.

To Be Continued

So Pharaoh is taking the information from the Omnitrix, what does he have planned to do with that information and how will Ren act after this procedure is complete? Read and review to find out.


	7. Something’s rotten in Bellwood

Happy New Year!

Chapter 7: Something's rotten in Bellwood

Well with only homework to look forward to, Ben relaxed at the bar in his favorite diner still drinking that strawberry milkshake he got ten minutes ago. Today just seemed so boring being all alone, he would even settle hanging out with his dorky cousin at the moment.

Mrs. Dalton, the owner of this fine establishment, noticed the young teen letting out another depressed sigh after taking a sip of his milkshake, this being the third one in the past minute; not to mention he would usually be on his third milkshake by now.

So the elderly plump woman made her way to the boy who was using his arm to hold up his head, giving him a kind smile. "Hey there kid, it looks like something is eating you; is something wrong?"

The alien hero turn towards the owner bearing a face lacking any of his usual energy, he just didn't feel like himself. "I don't know Mrs. Dalton, I'm just so bored today and I don't know why."

"Well it could be that you're not with your cute friends, Gwen and Ren. Come to think of it this is the first time I haven't seen them with you."

After hearing that Ben realized he completely forgot to wait for Gwen, boy was she going to let him have it later. "They both have their own things to do today."

She could only smile at this teen, he was just lonely. "Well how about you finish up that milkshake and I will get you another one," she winked, "on the house."

There was that smile she was looking for appearing on the boy. "Thanks."

With that Ben watched her walk in the back; yet sadly that smile quickly disappeared when two old familiar faces walked in, now realizing why school life so far had been so relaxed. "Hey look it's the dweeb," Cash announced as he walked up to Ben; now if Gwen thought he was stupid she would have a field day with these two knuckleheads.

"Dweeb," J.T. chuckled, "that was a good one, Cash."

"Shut it, J.T.," the taller, and obviously smarter, of dumb and dumber stated; one would think that the kid with glasses could think for himself besides repeating everything Cash would say then brown-nosing.

"So what are you two stooges doing here," Ben complained, looking at their school uniforms of a green vest and brown pants; that being the uniform for the school on the other side of town, "did the short bus drop you off at the wrong spot?"

"No dweeb, my father is next door for a business meeting and we stopped by for something to eat," Cash informed, oddly Ben knew that the place next door was a bar so either he was lying or they were as stupid as Ben thought, "but now it seems like we found some entertainment as well."

The alien hero cursed himself at keeping his butt-kicking life a secret, wanting to quickly go Fourarms and try to pound a lesson into their thick skulls. But luckily something on the news diverted his attention.

"A breaking story in the city of Bellwood as three people with what seem to be unusual abilities and a bad taste in fashion are running amuck; destroying buildings and robbing from banks to jewelry stores while the local law enforcement is powerless to stop them," the female news reporter informed while the disaster was clearly seen behind her, "Right now all the police can do is barricade the area so no civilians are harmed but only one can ask is for how long?"

Now if that wasn't a reason to go hero what else is there. Placing what he owed on the table he made his way to the door, only to be stopped by them again. "Get out of my way; I don't have time to deal with you losers."

Cash then wrapped his arm around Ben's neck, tight. "Ah come on, we haven't chatted in so long; we need to catch up."

Not wanting to deal with them another second, he quickly jabbed the guy in the stomach where after he let go he flipped him over and on his back, hard. He never knew that the martial arts moves Gwen inflicted on him could be useful at one day in his life; rushing out the door and leaving the older teen groaning on the floor.

* * *

Gwen awaited for Alex in that large personal library of his; having every book she could ever dream of reading stocked in those tall shelves, but what got her attention had to be the white grand piano placed in the middle of the room. 

It was so beautiful, well maintained and properly tuned; gently gliding her fingers over the keys that just seemed to shine in her eyes, making her wish she could play more then the first few notes of Beethoven's Fur Elise.

"Sorry about the wait," his voice made her arm jolt away from the piano; but with that action he smiled, "do you know how to play?"

She shook her head. "Not more then a few notes; but if you don't mind me asking what took you so long?"

He chuckled when Gwen asked, like if trying to cover the depression in his tone. "It was with a lawyer, trying to find if there was any loop-hole where I could see my sister. So far it's still air tight."

The orange-haired girl covered her mouth after he said that, like if she just uttered a taboo. "Oh I'm so sorry I..."

But he cut her off when he shook his head with that warm smile on his face. "No it's all right; but it was a piano like that one where I taught her how to play."

Her gentle eyes looked over the keys before looking back over at him, wondering why she started to feel so nervous with the question she wanted to ask him as she tapped her right foot on the ground. "If you wouldn't mind, could you play me a song?"

That smile of his once again made her heart feel like it skipped a beat, especially when mixed with those warm blue eyes gazing into hers. "For you, I would be glad to."

He made his way over to the white grand piano, gently sitting on the bench as he positioned his fingers lightly on the keys. Before he struck the first note he took a deep breath which he quickly released. There he played Chopin's Prelude so beautifully she could swear she felt tears form on her eyes, but she could also feel a strange deep pain in her chest, like if her heart was about to break. "You know Gwen," he was able to speak without any faultier in his playing, "just like dancing playing an instrument is another way one is able to express their emotions without words. The only way one can play a song that can reach one's heart is by putting their emotions through each note."

His song made her feel warm and cold at the same time; feeling strange to have two opposites in her body at once, what exactly did this feeling mean?

He then finished up the lovely song and smiled over at his beautiful guest. "I hope you enjoyed the pre-work entertainment, Gwen."

Still a little curious to that strange feeling she just got, she could only smile happily to his question. "Yes I loved it, did you ever play professionally?"

He shook his head. "No I just played for fun; if I got paid for it then I would see it as work rather then enjoyment."

Gwen became befuddled. "But isn't it better to find work in something you do enjoy?"

Alex nodded. "That is true, but some things that you really enjoy you would like to keep separate from work; usually something with a deeper emotional meaning to you you wouldn't want to turn stale because you are being paid for it," but even after he explained he could tell she was still confused, he chuckled a little from that cute expression on her face, that look alone made him think of confusing her more often just to see it, "it is something you need to experience first hand to truly understand."

"If you say so," was all she could say; still not truly understanding what he meant since she would gladly want to get paid for anything she was able to do.

"Hey Gwen, can you keep another secret?" he asked calmly, still giving her that warm smile when he did.

"Sure," she answered her boyfriend without a second thought; no reason to keep secrets from each other since they were dating, "what kind of secret is it?"

"It's nothing too big, it's just I haven't shown you all of the rooms to my house." then with a press of the foot level on the left and playing the first six note to Beethoven's Fifth, Gwen watched one of the book shelves disappeared behind another; revealing a single oak door in the wall. "Do you want to see? I won't leave your side if you're scared."

She put on a tough face that Alex couldn't help but chuckle to; she wasn't going to admit she was scared of anything. "No problem, but what room is it?"

He got up and walked to her side, giving her a smile that made her feel she had nothing to worry about. "It is hard to explain, you have to see it to believe it," the teen in white then extended out his arm, "shall we?"

She wrapped her arm tightly around his. "Let's go."

* * *

As XLR8, Ben was able to make it to ground zero there in the blink of an eye, and just like the news reporter stated the three were definitely lacking in fashion skills; wearing strange black jumpsuits and their skin looked to be covered in a pale makeup. 

Not to mention at first glance he would consider these three to be circus freaks: one with a mouth hanging so far open Ben bet the guy could swallow a bowling ball, a woman with five thick orange hair strains from her head, and the last, and strongest, guy's forehead looked like a thumbnail.

They looked to be a pretty easy group that he could take on his own, yet he always wanted his first butt-kicking moment alongside Ren. It looks like one can't always get what they wish for. "Hey Circus Freaks," the speed alien yelled, "I don't like it when people are smashing up my town!"

The three turned their attention to the only one that looked stranger then them, thinking this was going to be an easy fight. "And what's an oversized Gecko going to do to stop us, sell us car insurance?" the one with a hanging jaw asked while they all chuckled.

Ben could only smirk, what a great time for them to show up with all the displaced anger he now had from the diner. "No, I'm going to kick your butt, in fast forward."

The big thumb headed guy lifted up a large ATM over his head, but before he could throw it the lizard was no where to be found. "Looks like it was all talk," the woman that looked to be wearing a frightening wig declared with a smirk.

They all agreed to that until the thumb skull felt a few taps on his shoulder, looking over just in time to see the alien smile just before tripping him; causing that machine to fall on top of the strong man. "Now, who was all talk again?"

* * *

Gwen's arm was tight around Alex's even as they walked down those well lit stairs; a feeling in the pit of her stomach telling her to stop but her curiosity trumping it. Each time she asked him he would just answer with the simple phrase, 'it's a surprise.' 

Once they reached the bottom step there stood in there way another single oak door; gently opening it to reveal a large dark room. She felt her skin tingling with goose bumps from both excitement and uncertainty, wondering what kind of room this could be.

After they walked in, Alex casually flipped on a few switches to uncover before her green eyes a large fully equipted personal laboratory. Her face completely excited as she tried to hold back her squeals of joy; observing that he had every chemical and mineral that one could ever need or wish for in a lab. "So, what do you think Gwen?"

"This place is so cool," she nearly yelled in excitement, one day wishing she could have a lab just like this if she was to become a scientist when she grew up, still right between a doctor or a lawyer, "is this your personal lab?"

The teen smiled when he shook his head. "No, this is my dad's personal lab where he likes to tinker with his own ideas, but he let's me use it too."

Still wandering around the place, she looked to see a window; making her wonder why a person would need a window in a lab, especially one that is well below his house. Once there, she saw that not only was there a lab down here, but a large dome structure right out that window. "Alex, what is that?"

"A Safety Dome for some of his experiments, though I think he has yet to have actually used it."

Not giving it a second thought, she looked back over at her boyfriend to see an unusual look in his eyes, not to mention the fact he wasn't looking at her, almost like he had something else on his mind. "Alex," she asked in a caring tone, "is something wrong?"

He looked back at her yet quickly looked away again. "I-I kind of had another reason why I invited you to my house."

She didn't want to jump to conclusions with another one of her dad's ranting coming across her mind; but he did look more concerned then his usual warm expression. "What do you mean?"

The teen in front of her took a deep breath before looking her into the eyes, feeling her deep pain in her chest when he did. "Gwen, I really care about you and after seeing how distraught you were the other night because you thought I would just leave you after learning about your gift made me want to help you any way I could. You're probably going to hate me for even suggesting this but I was wondering if I could personally study your ability here so you can better understand your gift as well."

She could tell he wasn't even trying to hide his worried tone; it was true that her power was still a touchy subject but how could any technology he had study this ability she had. "But how can you technology study the supernatural?"

"That's just the point," Alex exclaimed, "during the time of the discovery of this ability people would state it was the power of the devil and supernatural because it is something they couldn't understand. But now today, where we believe in hard facts rather then blind faith, we might be able to find out what your gift really is, because I seriously doubt someone as intelligent, beautiful and kind as you could have anything to do with pure evil."

Her face flustered, it was still rare that someone would call her beautiful outside from her mother and father; this again making her wonder how she could have been lucky enough to have boyfriend so smart and caring as him. "What did you have in mind for this study?"

"At first I will just record you using your gift under differing cameras and take notes, then if that doesn't work use more detailed research but we will talk about that later if the time comes," he then walked over to her, never breaking his eye contact with her as he cupped his hands in hers, "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable at all Gwen, so if it begins to feel strange in the least you can cut it off as soon as possible, all right?"

She smiled when he said that and nodded her head, even though she doubted anything here could be of any help she couldn't see the harm in trying; anything that could help her understand her ability better was worth a shot. "All right, I will."

He then pulled her into a warm tender hug, one she wished wouldn't end.

* * *

While all this was happening, Ben seemed to be getting the remaining two freaks offly agitated, almost like he was playing with them and just having some fun as they were unable to have any of their attacks actually land a hit on the speeding blue lizard. 

The girl's hair seemed to be like another part of her body as she was not only able to grab heavy items with those five thick orange strands but throw them with great accuracy while the guy with the hanging jaw could hawk lugies that melted anything that it touched. These weren't types of abilities a normal human would have.

Even though speed was good, it was little he could do for strength in this form, but with the local media watching if he was to switch to another alien he knew it wasn't going to end up good.

"Stand still so I can hit you!" the one with acid like breath yelled before hawking another one of those deadly lugies; if he wasn't the enemy Ben wished he could learn how to do that.

"What, can't hit what you can't see?" he mocked but simply dodged yet again, the attacks were way too slow to ever land an actual hit, but if he was to keep this up he would get completely exhausted before stopping them. However another idea came to his mind, the head on assault had yet to have failed him so why stop now.

So while easily dodging their assault he made his way straight towards the two; running around them at blinding speeds while breaking off to hit them every now and again; his speed only giving him a little extra strength for his attacks.

But just as he got too cocky, he failed to realize the large steel beam come across his path till it was too late. Tripping over it at such high speeds he rolled uncontrollable till he slammed into the side of a building with a small pile of rubble covering his body.

"Ouch, I don't want to do that again," yet once he opened his face panel he realized that thumb skull wasn't truly down for the count, seeing him holding that large steel beam over his shoulder like a baseball bat and now with them circling around him. This didn't look like it was going to end well, "ugh, how about I let you guys off with a warning?"

He knew that was defiantly not going to work, especially since they were all laughing to his answer. "It's going to be fun getting rid of this annoying reptile before destroying the rest of this city, don't you think?" the female of the group asked where they all agreed.

While under this rubble there wasn't much else that he could think of then going Fourarms or Diamondhead; but another idea came into his mind while a smirk grew on his face, a way to fight them off and still be out of sight of those cameras. "Hey before you kill me, how about I show you a little magic trick?"

"Make it quick," the one that took bad breath to another level answered, not seeming to be brimming with patience at the moment.

"Well then, abra kadabra!" where in a bright green flash, he was nowhere to be seen.

The three were looking around. "Did he run away again?" the strong one asked, scratching his large forehead with his free hand.

"No way, not even he can be that fast," strangely the one with a hanging jaw was able to speak clearly, "not to mention what was with that green flash?"

"Don't you remember what I said before?" a strange ominous voice sent a chill up their spines, looking franticly around to find out where it came from; unaware of that one red eye watching them. "You can hit what you can't see!"

Feeling their skin crawl from that tone they swung at the air around them to no avail; only feeling an unnatural force throwing them aside and slamming them into walls. The two men were tossed like feathers to other ends of the area, leaving the girl all alone to try and fight off the abnormal phenomenon that lurked around her. "Come out and fight," her tone shaky at best, "I'm not afraid of you!"

"Oh that's too bad," she felt another cold sensation go through her spine, feeling like he was right behind her where there was nothing there, "I will have to change that."

Having the sensation like a hand just latched onto her terrified face just before having her head slammed into the side walk several times; till she was in a state of unconsciousness. There as he looked at his handy work, he could feel his body shaking. "Whoa, that even freaked me out; I'm going to have to make Ghostfreak a last resort from now on."

Then in another green flash he turned back into XLR8 and dashed out of the area, letting the police take it from there; any other day he would stand by to gloat but this may have been a bit much.

* * *

As with that all over, Ren woke up on that metal bed of hers. The first thing she noticed was that her face and throat felt a bit numb as the good doctor was looking over her. "Well the procedure is over and it is a complete success; however your face will feel a little numb for about another half-an-hour but after that you will be able to express emotions like anyone else on our planet." 

Even though her face didn't show it, that news made her feel very happy. "However," but she still found it amazing on how quick a simple word could change ones feelings, "because your brain is still pressing against your ribcage this effect is only temporary and will probably only last a month in the latest."

Her emotionless red eyes looked away from the doctor; she knew an Earth month was a long ways away, things like that had a way of coming a lot sooner then expected. "There is a simple, virtually no risk, surgery that we at Sphinx Corp. could perform to make this effect permanent; so at the moment see this treatment as a test drive to see if you like this. After it has worn off and you still want the treatment, just call and we will set up a date and time."

She really liked that idea, hoping this was something she did want to be everlasting. She tried to answer but with her throat numb as it was nothing was coming out. "Oh right, I forgot to mention that until that numbness wears off you won't be able to talk," he quickly grabbed a small note book from his coat pocket and clicked the pen for her, "just use this for now."

Ren nodded, writing down only two simple words for the doctor to read, the phrase **Thank you**. He smiled. "No problem, Nurse Linda will escort you out and to the transportation that will take you home," Dr. Becker informed.

* * *

Getting late into the evening, Alex announced over the speakers. "Gwen, it's getting late, we probably should wrap this up so I can drop you off at your house; wouldn't want to worry your parents." 

"All right," she called out, only using her powers to simply move various objects depending on weight; finding interesting that even with different weights she lifted them around with the same amount of effort.

She made her way up, using a hand towel to dry off the thin layer of sweat that covered her face; even if they were supernatural powers using them could be quite exhausting with prolong use. "So what's the good news, doctor," she joked once she walked up to him, resting the towel behind her neck.

Watching his fingers typing rapidly at the computer, a bit surprised as she has never seen someone typing as fast as that before. "Well nothing much but I wasn't really expecting to make a breakthrough on the first day; are you feeling all right?"

She nodded to his question with a self satisfying smile. "Just a little out of breath but no big deal," it was nice to see how focused his attention was on that computer, she loved how much of a hard worker he was, "yet you said nothing much, so what did you find?"

Alex turned the computer screen to face her, showing her just a video of when she was using her magic. "So besides the camera adding ten pounds what did you find?"

The teen with short white hair chuckled. "Well that is what we see when viewing it through the naked eye, but," he then selected camera seven, which clearly showed in a different light, an unique aura around her body, "under ultraviolet light, we can clearly see there is some kind of energy surrounding your body when you use your power, which could explain your abilities or is just a side effect of when you do use them. I will still need to do some more research but I do think this could be a key."

"Sounds good," yet she looked at the clock just below the video, a bit shocked that it was already half-past six; being underground seemed to throw off her internal clock, "wow I didn't think it was that late."

"Yeah, time sure flies when you're underground," he stood up with a smiled, holding out his arm for her to wrap it around, "but think about it Gwen, I do believe there are more people out there with a gift like yours who are also too scared to show it; with what we are doing here we will be able to help countless others."

His ocean blue eyes were so warm while looking into her beautiful green orbs, not only was he so accepting of her powers he was even willing to help her understand them, using this lab and everything; feeling her arm gently tighten around his. "Sounds great, but this better not start being counted as our dates," the orange haired witch winked.

He couldn't help but chuckle, he just loved that look she would give him. "Obviously not, how about we head out to the movies tomorrow after school, my treat?"

Gwen nodded. "All right, but I will get the popcorn," because even those he was rich, didn't mean he needed to buy everything on their dates.

* * *

Ben relaxed in his home; watching the news and eating a meal he just cooked up. His parents went out to dinner and left him alone to watch over the house; the teen might still think cooking skills could impress a girl was a lie, but they were sure helpful when he got hungry as he slurped up some of those noodles. 

He turned up the volume when it came to the part of the news he was actually interested in, because any other day he would have just been watching a cartoon show. "Well now we focus on what just happened earlier today right in the middle of Bellwood where one of those alien heroes we have heard so much about over the summer, this one we believed to be called XLR8, was seen apprehending three people with some unusual abilities. With the police unable to take down these three the people of this city see this as a stroke of good luck, even the secretary of Sphinx Corp.'s CEO made this announcement soon after this incident."

The male news anchor was pushed off the screen as the video taken of Miss. Neith, the only person that makes the head of Sphinx Corp.'s public speeches. "The Head of Sphinx Corp. would like to personally thank this mysterious alien that took it upon itself to help the men in blue of this fair city, even he stated he would reveal himself to this alien to shake its hand."

"Cool," Ben thought aloud, "I might be able to finally meet the mysterious Man of the Millennium face-to-face."

"Now onto our next story," the Anchorman stated, "who is the head of Sphinx. Corp.?"

However, before he could get in-depth into this story, he heard the doorbell ring. Excitedly jumping over the couch, wondering what took Ren so long as he dashed towards the front door.

Once there, he just opened the door to see her standing there; her attention focused on the ground. "Hey Ren," unable to control his energized tone of voice, but it quickly changed to a worried one, "are you all right Ren, why were you out so late?"

She didn't answer, only looked up to look him in the eyes with that emotionless face of hers; a face that slowly begun to form a warm gentle smile.

The teen couldn't believe his eyes, just seeing that smile on her snow white face made his heart pound so hard he could barely breathe, let alone speak. Yet her expression quickly changed, to that of concern. "Ben," her voice now full of a caring heavenly tone, feeling his face starting to get really hot, "do you not like my smile?"

He was unable to speak while looking at her, never feeling his body race like that before. So he turned his head away before saying. "Ren," he was having a hard time keeping his voice down, his chest still feeling like it was about to explode when he thought about that smile, "how are you able to express emotions like that?"

Ren's skin started to feel like those strange life forms were crawling on her skin again, remembering how she had to lie to him like that. She could feel her face make an emotion that probably matched the depression she felt. However, she didn't see any harm in telling him now. "I'm sorry; I lied about what I was doing earlier," she liked how her throat didn't feel so tight anymore, now able to talk without breaking up her sentences to breathe, "Sphinx Corp. asked me to help with a new procedure that could rejuvenate inactive muscles so I agreed to be a test subject."

What she was explaining wasn't rare, ever since the main office came to Bellwood some people were asked to try experimental procedures; so why did he suddenly feel so worried after hearing that. "Well it's not good for you to stay outside, come on in."

She smiled once again then walked inside, feeling a soft breeze as he closed the door behind her. However after he did, he gently grabbed onto her arms and looked into her scarlet eyes.

"Are you all right," he still couldn't understand why he was acing like this, feeling his mouth becoming drying the longer he looked into her eyes, "did that procedure have any other side-effects, do you feel ill?"

The young blue haired teen always had the hardest time getting a clear reading of an earthlings emotions, but they were very clear to her now when she looked into Ben's green eyes; feeling his concern and worry, this making that smile come back on her face. "I'm all right, you don't need to worry."

He finally realized that he had his hands on her arms, letting go while trying to put back on a tough guy look; having some trouble doing so as he looked at that smile of hers; making his heart feel like it was skipping some beats. "I-I wasn't worried, but why didn't you just tell me where you were going?"

That feeling of depression came back on her face. "I had to agree to a thing called a Hush Order, I wasn't aloud to inform anyone about it for some reason," she then pressed her hands to her cheeks, feeling it to no longer hard, "but I really like how my face does not feel so stiff anymore, and expressing my emotions like you feels refreshing."

The Tennyson boy was having a hard time controlling his body at the moment, he didn't know why but seeing that smile of hers made his body feel really warm with his hands unconsciously twitching. This made him wonder if this was an ability her species has if they were able to express emotions or just his going haywire. But now as she was able to express emotions like any other human she seemed more cheerful, yet he somehow felt like this was how she always was.

* * *

Late that night in a dark room, Pharaoh watched over the visual data of that speed alien taking on his FREAKS, enjoying a bowl of popcorns as he chuckled to the scene where the alien tripped then slammed into the building. "Not only is this useful but humorous as well, maybe I will send it into Worlds Funniest Moments." 

However, his attention focused on the scene where his FREAKS seemed to be attacked without anyone there, pressing down on the remote control to do a thermo-scan on the incident to see the alien clear as day. "Ah, so an Ectonurite as well, such vicious qualities this alien possesses; and very entertaining as well."

Pressing a button on his desk, he spoke into the intercom. "Dr. Animo, how is the information you got from the Omnitrix coming along."

"It is simply amazing," the doctor couldn't hold back his enthusiasm, never coming across technology such as this, "the information and programming on that devise is so high-tech it is like a dream; it will take some time for me to properly research even with all of the technology you have graciously donated for my research."

"I think of it as only an investment for a better tomorrow," he stated while looking over the data he found in his home's computer system, enjoying how he was getting everything he wanted and needed, and the Tennyson family still had no idea he was watching them, "but I picked you to look over it because of your skills in genetic research, I know you will not fail me."

"Not to mention I know what the consciences are for failing you, Pharaoh."

The CEO let out another dark chuckle; he did hire this man because of his intelligence. "Well I will let you get back to work; I will like to see some progress within a week, goodnight."

Disconnecting the connection, the glow of his computer screen revealed that dark sadistic grin of his; soon this world won't know what hit it, till it is too late to be stopped.

To Be Continued

How will Ben react now around Ren, what will Alex and Gwen find out about her powers, and what is this plan Pharaoh has with all of them? Read and Review to find out.


	8. The Lost Kingdom

Fanfiction dot net ticks me off, I seem to update right when they are screwing with the site. Well I hope to read your reviews soon.

Chapter 8: The Lost Kingdom

Later that Friday after school, on that warm blue sky, a cool breeze past by Gwen and Ren as they enjoyed eating their fast food in the outside seats; fall was defiantly coming now.

Gwen would usually have a salad with some orange juice at these kinds of places, but the taste of grub worms was still in her mouth and the only thing that would cover it was a sauce dripping burger. She hoped that her grandfather's horrible tasting cooking would leave her mouth soon before she was to get fat off this stuff.

Her eyes looked up at her ex-roommate who only ordered a small parfait. The orange-haired teen was a bit shocked a few days ago at first to see Ren talking and expressing her emotions like any other human; yet didn't take long for her to get use to it.

However, to what Gwen could guess Ren was looking a bit depressed lately, watching the red-eyed teen just swirling her ice-cream in that little plastic cup. This was going to be a boring girls-day-out if no one starting talking. "So Ren, how are you enjoying the Earth life?" was the only thing the green-eyed girl could think of.

Ren's eyes were no longer emotionless, gently looking up from her dessert with slightly sadden eyes before looking back down. "I like your planet a lot," her voice, instead of monotone, was soft and full of concern, "so far what I have seen and have experienced is wonderful and interesting."

The alien girl took a deep breath before exhaling it. "But why aren't you with Alex today?"

Gwen let out a little giggle, with dating, schoolwork and their research of her powers they have been spending a lot of time together. "Well it's because it has been awhile since we've spent time together, and Alex has a club meeting today so it all worked out." She smiled, remembering when they were roommates it took awhile for this alien to speak a sentence to her. "So what has my bonehead of a cousin been up to; I hope he hasn't given you too hard of a time with helping him at schoolwork."

Ren's cup started to shake from the mention of that name and her eyes looking down farther. "I-I don't know."

Surprised and confused at the same time, the young witch wore a crooked smile. "What do you mean? You're not tutoring him anymore, now that I can't believe," yet she was still a little shocked Ren said that, they seemed to hang out as much as she did with Alex.

"H-He hasn't communicated or moved his eyes towards me since I have been able to express my emotions like your species," she hid her face from the orange-haired teen; she now had some kind of feeling as to why it was hard for her to read the emotions of earthlings, expressing her emotions like this was stronger then she realized, "he doesn't make eye-contact when we eat our meals, he is already out of the classroom by the time I have finished gathering my school supplies, and if I manage to communicate with him he creates some kind of excuse and then leaves. I wonder if I upset him somehow but I can't recall any wrong doing I have done."

Gwen groaned to herself, wondering what was wrong with her bonehead of a cousin now. "Don't worry Ren; it is probably just my cousin's fault."

However that answer of hers didn't seem to make her alien friend feel any better; but when she put her right hand in her pocket she remembered something. "I got a good idea Ren, let's all head to that new amusement park that's having its grand opening tomorrow, The Lost Kingdom."

Ren lifted her eyes away from her plastic cup, tilting that sad face of hers. She might have the ability to show her emotions but her body language was still apart of her. "What is an, amusement park?"

"You mean you've never been?" Gwen was surprised to hear, "it's a place with rides, food, entertainment, and you just have to see for yourself."

She pulled out three all access passes from her pocket, remembering when Alex showed her them. "Hey Gwen," he said right after their recent researching of her powers, "because my father's company built the amusement park for the city, I got these four all access passes to the park."

Gwen let out a childish squeal as she snatched them; her eyes shinning like diamonds to them, she loved going to amusement parks ever since she was a little girl. "So The Lost Kingdom was your father's doing?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "he thought as giving this to the city as a 'thank you' for allowing Sphinx Corp. to test it's products here, not to mention the entire park is powered by your father's new Ra Battery, saving the city countless in energy."

"So what does this mean by, all access pass?" Gwen asked; her eyes still completely focused on those tickets in her hands.

"These tickets are very rare, it means you don't have to wait in line for a ride and can get in to see the shows for free. Only we and some radio contest winners will have these." He couldn't help but smile from Gwen's reaction; he never would have guessed she would have been this thrilled by these tickets, "So how about giving Ren and Ben the other two, we can go tomorrow's grand opening, it can be like a double-date."

Ren looked over the two tickets that Gwen gave to her; a golden earthling-faced mask with two pyramids was behind the shiny golden words **The Lost Kingdom**. She had wanted to experience some earthling entertainment for some time now. "Sounds like it would be enjoyable," the red-eyed girl revealed a half-hearted smile, now that she had the ability to make her face smile there just didn't seemed to be much to smile about, "I will give the other to Ben."

"I know you're going to love it Ren, there is even going to be fireworks at nightfall," the witch was still so excited about all of this, it being so long since she had been to an amusement park.

Ren tilted her head once again. "What are fireworks?"

Gwen grinned. "Now those you will just have to see to understand, but it is amazing to experience."

* * *

While in his room, Ben continuously banged his head gently on his desk. He hated himself for how he was avoiding Ren all those times but, just remembering that smile on her snow white he could feel his face turn beet red.

Already feeling the blood starting to rush to his face from that thought again, he slapped and rubbed his face a few times; if he got like this just from thinking about it there was no telling what would happen if he was to see it again. "Ugh!" he sat back groaning to himself, resting his pencil between his nose and top lip, thinking aloud. "Why does that smile of hers have to make my body feel so warm and weak at the same time? I'm acting just like my annoying cousin when Alex gives her that creepy smile of his."

But he rested his head in his arms, letting out a depressed sigh as he played with the pencil. "What's the point anyway, Ren probably hates me now for how I've been giving her the cold shoulder."

However, with a knock on his bedroom door shot him up. "Ben," the sadden voice of Ren called out; he knew it was probably all his fault, "Gwen wanted me, to give you a ticket to the amusement park for tomorrow."

He watched as she slipped that golden ticket under his door. The teen wanted to talk to he, but all that would come out was. "Thanks Ren."

She didn't say anything after that and he could hear her walk away; for that he slammed his head on the table again; for once he would agree with his cousin, he was an idiot.

But Ben got out of his seat and walked over to his door, grabbing that single piece of paper under the crack. The brown-haired boy observed it; it had been awhile since he went to an amusement park so this looked like a good idea. "All right Ben," he said to himself, "just focus and keep calm and I might not screw this up."

* * *

Once again, that sadistic smile graced the lips of Pharaoh as the screen's glow was the only light in his office. "So far everything is going so smoothly it is almost boring, massive amounts of data is coming in from the little witch and that alien's Omnitrix and they both still have no clue that anything is going on, not to mention my company is still seen to this planet as a large step towards a better world," he chuckled after stating that, "if they only knew how right they were on that, with my own ideals of course." 

He changed the screen to his company's guest, Vilgax didn't seem to be enjoying his new arrangements of his room; after that procedure he should have been down for a month but he was already struggling once again. The CEO pushed a button and spoke. "My my Vilgax, you should take your doctors orders and rest up, you still haven't fully healed."

The alien put those thicker claws over his ears, compared to anything he was put through the sound of Pharaoh's voice still drove him insane beyond anything else. "Why don't you come down here right now? I will tear you apart till there is nothing left!"

"Sorry I can't do that right now, I still have much to get done," he chuckled while the behemoth banged on the steel walls harder, any creature that focused on brawns then brains were always so my fun to watch, seeing how their anger would lower their IQ substantially, "but don't worry, we will have a chat very soon."

He exited out of the page and pulled up another, seeing that there was still time before any of this information would be of any use to him he had nothing to do but wait; how boring that can be. So he picked up the phone and made a call to his R&D Military department. "Pharaoh, we are sorry that the FREAKS were capture so easily, we never expected that Hero Alien to appear in the small city of Bellwood."

"It's all right, actually everything went out according to plan," the CEO of Sphinx Corp. chuckled, "but I do need more information on these Heroes, so can you spare to send out another FREAK to Bellwood, FREAK 646635 has caught my eye and looks to be perfect for what I have planned."

"That FREAK is unstable; his mental state from his ability alone is near catatonic!" the head scientist yelled, causing Pharaoh to pat his ear to regain his hearing.

"That is exactly my point; please have him start attacking Bellwood's new theme park around eighteen-hundred hours," he chuckled a little, "that wouldn't be a problem, would it?"

The head scientist still couldn't figure out what the CEO was up to, it wasn't like they could just make countless FREAKS at the drop of a hat; just to get these four, nine hundred and thirty-six others died from the first step of the procedure alone. "It won't be a problem Pharaoh, but it will be awhile before any other FREAKS will be ready afterwards."

"I understand, and if this works out well you all will be getting a nice Christmas bonus."

"Thank you sir," the scientist replied calmly, "we won't fail you."

"I know, please tell everyone I have full faith in their abilities." Pharaoh answered before hanging up the phone, that sadistic grin still on his face. "It looks like I will be getting a little more data on what these aliens are truly capable of. Now I will just have to hope my son doesn't get hurt in the crossfire."

* * *

The next day came by fast with Grandpa Max driving the teens to the park in the Rustbucket. He watched in the review mirror Gwen and Ren talking to each other in the booth but was a bit surprised that Ben was in his old bed. 

Gwen was eagerly telling their alien friend what to experience at the grand opening, to Ren seeing this excitement on Gwen's face as she explained made a smile slowly start to appear on her face, hoping that it would be like everything she said it would be.

"Look at all these rides!" the orange-haired teen exclaimed, looking at an advance copy of the map Alex gave her, "Mummies Revenge, The Pharaoh's Tomb, The Raging Nile; oh I just can't wait to get there."

"Don't worry Gwen," her grandpa stated, "we only have another five minutes till you're there."

Gwen cheered once again; the alien had never seen her friend act so energetically before. "So Ren, what ride would you like to go on first?"

Her scarlet eyes looked over to the back of the vehicle. She wished she could have at least chatted with Ben on the ride over, but once again he was being distant; making her wonder if she had done anything to upset him. "Any looks fine," she answered, feeling her body starting to become colder, how she feared the cold.

The cousin started to rub her head, she wondered why her cousin had to be such a bonehead at times it drove her nuts. "Well I know you are going to have a good time Ren, just you wait."

* * *

Their grandfather dropped the three off at the entrance, giving his kind smile as he said. "All right I will be back at eight to pick you three up, but I am just a call away on your Thoth if you need me sooner." 

Gwen slapped her forehead; she forgot that this devise on her arm had that function; still feeling like it was the Omnitrix from time to time. "No problem grandpa," she waved; her mind now on the rides that were shinning in her eyes.

"Are you sure you don't want to come, grandpa?" Ben asked.

The elderly man nodded. "Yeah I'm sure; I will just slow you youngsters down. Go and have fun."

They all waved their goodbyes as Max closed the door, driving away from the energetic teens. "Hey Gwen, Ren, Ben," the three turned their attention to see Alex waving to them, wearing casual clothes but still pure white, "come on, Sphinx Corp.'s secretary is about to open the park!"

The female Tennyson smiled from ear-to-ear before rushing over to Alex's side; he loved seeing Gwen so happy. He still remembered that incident from their one week anniversary, he truly thought that night he would never see Gwen this happy after that. "Well come on, we don't want to get caught up in the crowd."

She walked off with her arm around his, leaving Ben and Ren to themselves. Even though they were standing so close it almost felt like there was a brink wall between them, both looking away from each other. "So," Ben wished he could at least look at her, but he didn't know how he would react if he looked at her face again; she just looked so beautiful with that smile, "we should head over so we can get our bracelets."

"A-All right," she felt her skin covered in those weird bumps, wondering why she had to feel so distant with him with two inches between them; watching him already start to walk ahead.

Once it hit ten o'clock Miss. Neith tapped the microphone a few times; once she realized it was working fine she started her speech. "Welcome all to the Grand Opening to the new amusement park, The Lost Kingdom."

Everyone in that audience was quick to cheer, but settled down just as quickly. "This is a way Sphinx Corp. would like to say thank you to the good people of Bellwood; with how cooperative you all have been with the testing of our new products, it has jumpstart our research by leaps and bounds; this theme park itself is even powered by the Ra Battery: using only one-eighth of the power that a theme park it's size would require."

From behind the podium, she pulled out a giant pair of scissors; holding them open right over the ribbon. "The CEO wishes you all a good time and enjoy, The Lost Kingdom!"

With that over with she cut the ribbon, causing the people to start flooding the entry way, buying their wrist bracelets so they could start hitting the rides.

But before they went to get their bracelets, Gwen could easily see how distant those two were being. The teen groaned; she knew if anything was going to knock sense into her idiot cousin it was going to have to be her. "Hey Alex, could you do me a favor?"

He smiled down at her. "I don't see why not."

"Could you take Ren with you to get the bracelets; I need to talk with my cousin."

He nodded, still giving her that warm smile which made her rapidly tap her right foot on the ground. "Thanks, you're a life savor," she turned towards the other two, "hey Ren, could you help Alex get the bracelets?"

The blue-haired teen shook her head. "N-No problem."

She walked off with the teen in white, and once Gwen made sure they were out of ear-shot she stomped her way over to her dimwit cousin. "What the heck is wrong with you, Ben; you're acting more like a jerk then usual!"

The boy rolled his eyes, it's not like he didn't know that already. "Just leave me alone, it's none of your business?"

She tried to look him in the eyes, but he irritably kept diverting his sight. "Look Ben, no matter how much I want those blood tests to be wrong we are family and being family it is my business. Now why are you being so cold to Ren?"

Ben just let out a groan; he knew she would probably figure it out sooner or later so why not just get it over with. "Ever since Ren showed me her smile I can't get the image out of my head; just thinking about it now I can feel my face heating up and my chest is killing me."

Gwen's green eyes went wide with shock; she never would have guessed that Ben would be this open on it; letting out a little giggle from it as well. "Come on, I could tell you've had feelings for Ren ever since Galactic Enforcers. So what's the problem?"

He rubbed his throbbing head, understanding he was probably way to obvious without realizing it; but that wasn't the point for the time being. "I can't believe I am telling you this Gwen but," he whispered, "I'm scared."

The witch felt like she was hit up the side of the head by a brick, she never would have guessed that Ben: the want-a-be tough guy, stubborn as a mule, idiot of a cousin would ever admit this vulnerable side to her. She wouldn't say it to his face but she was proud of him, he seemed to be maturing for once. "I don't understand; why are you scared?"

He had a feeling that she was going to blackmail him with this later, but it didn't matter at the moment. The teen also didn't like to admit it but they were family, and at the moment the only family member he could talk to about this at the moment; he knew if he was to talk to his mother about this he wouldn't hear the end of it. "Because, I keep thinking if I was to see Ren's smile again, I won't be able to hold back."

Gwen watched Ben look away again, rubbing his hands together. It was a little shocking to the Spellcaster, never believing that she would ever see him in a state like this. "What do you mean, hold back?"

"I don't know myself," his tone started to crackle and shake, he hated feeling like this out in the open, "but if I act like this just from thinking about her smile, I'm afraid I might hurt her if I look at her."

However, after stating that Gwen slapped the teen upside the back of the head; snapping back to look at her glaring at him. "What was that for?"

"Because you're an idiot, Benjamin," the orange-haired teen was using his full name, he must have screwed up big-time for that, "do you think you are making her feel any better by constantly giving her the cold shoulder? Just suck it up and talk to her; we have all day for you to get it right!"

The alien hero didn't know why, but he started to chuckle after she said that; it had been awhile since he chuckled, it felt good. "Gwen, you're probably never going to hear me ever say this again or ever admit to saying this but, thanks."

"Don't worry," she could only grin, "my Thoth has a playback function."

He glared at his conniving cousin, only she would pull something like that. "You better not use this conversation as leverage for something later."

The sneaky girl smiled before turning her back to the boy. "Don't worry, I would never do that."

* * *

By this time, Alex and Ren made it half-way through the line. Feeling a bit quiet as they waited, the teen in white said. "So Ren, are you enjoying America?" 

The alien nearly forgot that he only knew her as an exchange student from Japan, but looked towards him and nodded to his question. "Yes, this country is a very nice place."

Once again, she didn't know why, but just looking into his solid ocean blue eyes made her body feel colder then before, to the point she wrapped her shivering arms around her chest.

He looked at this frail girls shivering body and became baffled, it was at least eighty-five degrees without a cloud in the blue sky; not to mention Hokkaido's cold climate she should sweating then shivering. "Ren, are you cold?"

She still didn't know why, but she felt so cold looking into his eyes. She couldn't feel any emotions coming from his eyes at all; the only thing she felt was, nothing. "Yes, but I don't feel ill."

Alex then snapped his fingers before reaching into his pocket, pulling out a few packets of Aten chicklet gum. "Here, try these."

Her dulling scarlet eyes looked over the three packs of twenty piece gum, a bit perplexed of how this gum was supposed to help her. "I do not understand."

"It's a special type of gum made by Sphinx Corp. Andro Branch that won't hit the market till early November, it increases blood flow to warm up the body. I usually take a piece during class because I can't stand how cold the air conditioners are," placing the packs in her small snow white hands, "I won't need them today and I have plenty back home."

Slowly, she cupped her hand around the packets. "T-Thank you, Alex."

"Don't mention it and could you also do me a favor," he rubbed the back of his head with a smile on his face, "this product isn't supposed to be out yet so could you just keep it a secret for now."

The snow white skinned alien gently nodded to the teen in front of her. "No problem," she said before taking the first piece of the gum out of the package, wondering how something so small could help her.

But there was only one way to find out, placing it in her mouth. After just the first bite Alex was right as her body instantly warmed up. "This really works," Ren stated excitedly, the cold just seemed to disappear with each bite, "thank you Alex."

Alex put his index finger to his lips. "Just keep it a secret all right, my dad can get in a lot of trouble if I had it in out in public."

Letting out a little giggle, she finally felt her body warm again, a feeling she never wanted to lose again. "No problem, it's our secret."

To Be Continued

Will Ben finally talk to Ren, what will happen when the FREAK strikes the amusement park, and what is this strange feeling she gets when around Alex? Read and review to find out.


	9. Pain and heartbreak

I am still referring to Ben's Benmummy as Underwrap because Ben was really lacking creativity with the names when he got the Horror Aliens.

Chapter 9: Pain and heartbreak

Already well into the afternoon those four teens were having a great time; even with being able to get to the front of the line of any ride they have only hit a little over half; this because Ben had to ride the Raging Nile water ride till he finally got soaked, which took six times.

And there he was walking out of the exit gate, a smile from ear-to-ear with his clothes soaking wet from head to toe. "Now this is what I was talking about."

Gwen could only shake her head in annoyance, why even at a theme park does her cousin have to act like a complete buffoon. "Well it looks like you finally got that shirt of yours washed."

The teen seemed to miss the fact that was an insult at his expense, looking down at his dripping white shirt. "What, this is my lucky shirt?"

The orange-haired girl couldn't help but rub her sudden headache but Ren was smiling when she asked. "Ben, why did you need to ride that particular ride so many times when there are so many others to get to?"

He didn't know why her smile didn't make his body act funny, making him wonder if it was just a first reaction to seeing her smile. Well what ever it was, he was glad that he wasn't giving her the cold shoulder anymore. "Because Ren, what's the point of going on a water ride unless you get completely soaked?" He couldn't help but expressed with pride that dumbfounded grin on his face; he was having a great time. "Not to mention it feels great on such a hot day, you should try it."

The alien shook her head. "No thanks, I prefer the warmth," she said while hiding her shaking hand, already feeling the piece of gum in her mouth losing its ability, "what should we head to next?"

"Well if we are to hurry we can make it to the two-fifteen showing of Queen of the Nile," Alex added his two cents while he looked at the map in his hands, "then we can head over to the Sands of Time restaurant for a late lunch."

Ben now felt like he was getting a head-ache. "It feels like I'm in school right now, why does Sphinx Corp. focus on Egyptian history so much?"

"Well," Alex rubbed his head, trying not to give out too much information as Ben and Ren still thought his father was the Lawyer to the CEO, "I've only heard rumors but I heard the CEO saw that early Egypt was a great metropolis and a break through in modern science and technology, so what better to base a company that is helping create another break through for the world."

"If you ask me the CEO to Sphinx Corp. might be a bit full of himself," Ben's statement shocked Alex but annoyed Gwen; she knew he didn't know that the CEO was her boyfriend's father but what he said still felt over the line, "I mean he uses his company to take over our city out of the blue, we've never even see him in public, and I'm still ticked off that he took baseball out of the school."

"Wasn't it you that suggested that maybe the CEO has a family and wants them to live a normal life," Gwen defended, not wanting to let out Alex's secret that she promised to keep, "Ben sometimes I wonder if you ever use that brain to think."

"I know I said that, but it still seems strange that he wouldn't at least have his first name known; everyone still refers to him as the CEO," the teen argued with his know-it-all cousin, wanting to see if she had an answer to that one.

For once, Gwen didn't seem to have an answer to one of her hard-headed cousin's accusations; actually she also wished she could learn the name to the father of her boyfriend. "The man probably has a reason, like wanting the people to live their own lives rather then just focusing on who this man is."

"Gwen it's all right," the witch became a little shocked, she would have never guessed that Alex would defend Ben after something like that, "people would get suspicious with quick changes; it is only natural."

Yet even though he did take Ben's side, everyone calmed down with that answer. "Well then," the teen in white quickly changed the subject, "do we want to head to that show?"

They all agreed to the idea more or less, but Ren said. "Could you go get the seats, I want to get a drink of water first."

"No problem Ren," the soaked teen said with enthusiasm, knowing even though this show would probably be boring he knew that lunch was right after, "I'll save your seat."

She thanked the drenched alien hero as they walked off towards the building. Once they were out of sight she looked down at her cold shaking hands; the gum just didn't seemed to last as long as it did before, already through one pack and halfway through her second. The red eyed girl spitted out her recent piece into the trash receptacle next to her then quickly slipped another one in her mouth, feeling her body instantly warm up once again.

Her hands stopped twitching after the first bite, the cold was something she never wanted to experience again, and willing to do whatever she could to make that so.

* * *

It was amazing of how fast time flew when friends were having fun, but the sun was already starting to set on that wonderful day; this causing many to curse the changing of the times twice a year.

Yet somehow during their time together, the friends split up into groups of two. Ben and Ren stayed by each others sides, with the young boy's hand constantly twitching towards the lovely woman next to him, but just as suddenly his hand returns to his side. Even after all they have been through the brown-haired student still couldn't muster up the strength to hold the hand of the girl that he cared for so deeply.

Even now, after he was able to look at her smiling face with no adverse reaction, he just couldn't bring himself to saying such simple words. Not to mention, even though she expressed the same smile as before, he couldn't help but get the feeling that something was off with the alien girl. Almost like the smile she was bestowing to him was covering something else, now unsure if the pain in his chest was just that of his own.

He watched as she stopped by the nearest trashcan to spit out the gum she had in her mouth, where before it even hit the inside of the metal can she already placed another one into her mouth. "You've seem to take a real liking to that gum," he hope the warm smile he gave her would help in anyway, "what flavor is that?"

The lovely girl's back hid how her scarlet eyes started to waver, disliking how not only she was down to her last three pieces, but how she needed to lie to the teen she cared for yet again; this gum now seeming to have little to no effect anymore with all this pain now. "It is," she thought of something on the spot, something she knew he wouldn't like, "cinnamon."

"Blah, that stuff burns my tongue," she knew he would say that, which only hurt her more. There was nothing more she hating them someone using another person's weakness for their own benefit, and here she was doing just that, "but you better slow down with that, you will be out of that pack before you know it."

Ben chuckled after saying that, but the girl he cared for had yet to show him her face. He wanted to ask her what was wrong and if there was anything he could do to help, he was willing to do anything he could for her. However, that was going to have to wait just as the clock struck six under that blood colored sky.

* * *

With the other two teens in this theme park, they were gently stopped at the top of Nut's Ferris wheel. The green eyed girl's body started to shiver a little from how high they were; it wasn't that she had a fear of heights, she just was never too good at the top of Ferris wheels as her father loved to rock their seat once they reached the top.

Her body quickly stopped shaking once Alex placed a caring hand on top of hers; even though they have been together for a short time she couldn't help but continue to wonder how this could even be real; finding someone that cared about her for her intelligence and able to see her as beautiful, even if she still couldn't see it herself.

The sky a lovely shade of red, the teen in white asked. "Are you all right? His warm voice calmed her even more, "you seem a bit shaky."

"I'm all right," she slowly shook her head. How much the young witch was enjoying the view; she could see the whole park from the place they sat, especially as the lights were just starting to come on, "this place is so beautiful from up here."

Suddenly, the teen felt a warm sensation caress her soft cheek. Quickly, she turned to look into her boyfriend's gentle kind eyes, which seemed to be shaky and unsure as he looked into hers. "You're right, it is beautiful up here."

If her body was to get any warmer she felt like her skin would just melt. Her body unconsciously moved closer to him, her face even closer. However, before anything could have happened, screams of terror filled the streets below as the sky quickly turned into living black.

Instantly, they turned to look down at the streets of screaming people; from what the two teens could see was that what looked to be ordinary honey bees swarming the innocent. With how many there were it didn't settle right with the two in the sky.

Along with the bees, the significant sound of countless locus filled the sky while centipedes and scarabs crawled all over the rides; the screams of terror filled the once joy filled day.

With everyone wondering what was going on, the screens all around the park answered their questions. Seeing on that screen the face of a pale older man wearing a trashed trench coat; and his eyes glowed while he spoke. "We are Clancy," his raspy tone filled the park, "we are sick and tired of how you disgusting meat bags have been destroying our land, so we will be taking it back."

Gwen knew she couldn't stand back and let this all happen, but before she could do anything the witch felt Alex grab her by the arm. "Gwen wait."

She turned to face her boyfriend, already coming up with a speech in her mind as to why she needs to go after he stopped her. But once she faced him, he was holding in his other hand a small purple cat-eyed mask and that smile on his face. "I saw it in the gift shop and it reminded me of that cat pendent you always wear. I was planning on giving it to you once we left but I think it will be of more use to you now."

Once again, her thoughts were mistaken when it came to her boyfriend; how she wished that this nutcase could have attacked a minute later. "Thank you," she took the mask, putting it on which fit her face perfectly.

"Just please come back in one piece," still giving her that warm smile as the emerald-eyed girl made her jump.

(Nut: Egyptian goddess of heaven and the sky - mother of many deities as well as the sun, the moon, and the stars)

* * *

Ben and Ren were instantly caught up in the chaos that surrounded them, nearly loosing each other several times in the rushing tides from the sea of terrified people. With so many people around there was little they could do to help; both knowing they needed to find some place a little more discrete.

Avoiding the insects and hoards of terrified people running in every direction, they were in luck as an employee entrance happened to be unlocked. After they snuck in and saw that no one was around, the teens knew what they had to do.

After a blinding green flash, Ben had changed into something that could be mistaken as an Egyptian mummy: its body made from the wraps that covered the long past pharaoh's body, yet wore a golden head dress. His eyes and the gaps around his chest glowed bright green as the Omnitrix was placed on his left shoulder.

Yet even with this new form, Ben was surprised at the form Ren had chosen; he guessed from the body structure that it was a Heatblast but instead of a red fire that surrounded her body, it was somewhat of a bluish green. "Hey Ren, how are you able to get Heatblast to look like that?"

The alien teen looked at her shaking hands, even she didn't understand why her fire had changed to this color; wondering how her body was reacting in the body of a Pyronite. "I don't know, but why are you using that alien?"

Even though his face didn't show the usually expressions, she could tell he would probably be giving her that dumbfounded smile of his. "Because there are bees swarming outside, so an alien that doesn't have skin would be perfect. Not to mention I might not know a lot about the Egyptians but I've seen enough mummy movies and if this wasn't the time to use Underwrap I don't know what is."

Just feeling that warm she was able to see through his eyes made her own body feel a little warmer, but with all these strange thoughts that constantly plagued her mind she cursed how his warmth now did so little. "Well, lets go teach that 'nut job' a lesson."

* * *

The madman stood at the top of the pyramid structure, watching as his kin attacked the part while he listens to the screams of terror that flooded the sky. All he had to do was to get rid of all these worthless scum and he was to be rewarded handsomely; remembering the little meeting he had with the one who blessed him with his gift.

The man's office was kept dark but his eyes could make out the outlines of the room pretty well. Clancy's attention was diverted to the only light that was in the room, coming from the computer screen of the CEO himself. "I'm glad we could have this little chat, FREAK 646635. Please have a seat."

He slowly walked over with his back hunched to where the dark voice called to him; the pale skinned man was a little suspicious as to why the CEO wished to talk with him before he was to carry out his mission. He preferred to stand as he stopped just short of the desk, the only thing he could make out of the man, even from that distance, where those cold ocean blue eyes of his. "Our name is, Clancy," his raspy tone replied.

Pharaoh chuckled. "I do apologize, Clancy, but there was something I wanted to talk to you about, face-to-face."

Clancy was still unsure what this man before him had in store for him, still looking down at the sadistic smile that graced Pharaoh's face and his cold ocean blue eyes; the light from the computer screen too dull to show anything else. "Now this mission will be your first and last because I am discontinuing the FREAK Program. I've noticed that it is consuming massive amounts of resources with very little to show for it. So I'm having a new program created that has more satisfying results."

The pale man grinding his teeth, assuming that Pharaoh was just going to have him killed off right after the mission. So just incase, he already started to summon the insects from the walls, not going to let him just get rid of him like a fly on a newspaper. "So what does that have to do with us?"

"I just wanted to say if you were to complete this mission successfully you will be rewarded handsomely," those words shocked the FREAK, he wasn't even expecting to hear that, "your own private island where you can live with the rest of your brethren, does that sound fair?"

He chuckled with that raspy tone of his, giving the head of Sphinx Corp. a smirk of delight. "So what do I have to do?"

He could only smile from that memory; all they had to do was flush out those alien heroes and fight them for a short period of time. They could even kill off some scum while they were at it; wondering if there was any one else out there that could have been a better boss.

* * *

It wasn't hard for the three teens to find out where the madman was that was controlling these insects, easily seeing him at the top of the pyramid structure in the center of the park; the darkest park of the living sky just above where he stood.

Ben already wrapped his bandage right arm onto a pole, readying to fling himself up; but when he looked back at Ren she seemed to be having a few problems with her form, unable to make the usual fire balls. "Ren, is everything all right?"

When she would try to make another fireball all that would come out was another puff of smoke; this unusual fire that now surrounded her body just didn't seem to react the same way. "I-I just can't seem to get this body to work."

But out of nowhere, a whole swarm of bees charged right at the humanoid glow wand. Her body, without even thinking, raised her arms to defend; however, instead of fire that came out of her palms, the bees were now frozen solid in that small iceberg.

They blue haired teen couldn't help but shake from the fear that now engulfed her body, her body so cold now it started to influence the other aliens on her Omnitrix.

Yet the earthling beside her was thrilled at the new ability her Pyronite body was able to perform. Un-bandaging his arm from the pole he rushed over to her side with nothing but excitement in his tone. "That is so cool Ren, I never knew a Heatblast could use ice; how are you able to do that?"

Her mind was drowning in fear and confusion, which only made her body feel to drop even colder. The only way it seemed she could get that off her mind was to focus on the mission at hand. "M-Maybe, it's just an advance technique."

She lied again to him, with how she was feeling lately it seemed like all she did to the person that was so nice to her was do everything she hated doing. What scared her most however, was how easy it was to lie. "Well after we kicked this bad-guys butt you so have to teach me that!" the wonderful person before her couldn't help but say with energetic eyes while her body wouldn't stop shaking.

* * *

With Clancy so focused on the chaos that ensued below his feet, he was instantly surrounded by the three teens; as he expected those two aliens showed up, although the girl with the mask was something new. "Don't you think it's a little early for Halloween little girl?" the blue paled skin man asked, chuckling sadistically to his own crack.

It wasn't like the orange haired girl to under think something as she wanted to announce her new persona's name, but she was quick on her feet to think of a name; realizing that to some a cat is unlucky, she instantly came up with... "I, Lucky Girl, am here to put a stop to your misdeeds!"

Ben couldn't have helped but groan while he shook his head, how she spoke sounded like one of the heroes from his Golden Age comics. He knew once they stopped this guy he was going to have to tutor his cousin in the ways of a super-hero. "Now there are three against one," Underwrap announced, pointing at the villain with his bandage arm, "so stop what you're doing or you're going to get a major butt kicking!"

Although from that order, Clancy chuckled. "Huh, only three of you?" raising his arms while his eyes glowed blue, countless insects surrounded the three heroes. "And here we thought you would be a challenge."

The buzzing in the sky made it hard for the teens to hear, watching as the bugs were just waiting for their master's orders; which he gave.

While they were distracted by the insects, Clancy used some of them to get away. "Ben, you and Ren can take care of this creep; I'll go help the people."

"Good idea, Lucky Girl," accidentally letting out a chuckle to that name, "we should have him whooped before your done."

Gwen only nodded in reply before making her way down; right now wasn't the time to get him back for laughing at her alias.

Even though the two alien heroes were highly outnumbered, their powers more then made up for it as Ren froze her share while Ben formed his arms into large fly swatters and battered them away.

As Clancy watched this, he became infuriated; how those two could slaughter his precious kin like that without any hint of regret. He was going to make them pay for that.

Beetles instantly surrounded the FREAK, covering his body from head to toe like a living armor. They jumped over, coming down next to the two with such force and weight he smashed in the rough of the pyramid they were fighting on.

With that uneven battlefield, Clancy didn't even give them enough time to get back on their feet as he swung his massive arms like clubs.

Even though Ben's Underwrap was strong, he was still nothing but bandages where he was simply blown away from the force of the madman's attack. Luckily he was able to stretch his arms and grab onto the roof before he plummeted to the ground that was at least thirty stories below.

Reeling himself in like a yo-yo, he changed his other arm into a ragged blade. Ren at this time froze Clancy's left arm moments, making so the energetic teen could slice it off with ease.

Easily seeing that he was no match against two of these alien freaks at once, once his arm re-grew from the extra beetles; he tried to make his escape.

Unfortunately, that plan wasn't something someone watching wanted; a sadistic grin grew on the man's face as with his Thoth, he activated a little back-up plan.

So before the two teens could chase after him, a horrible encrustation scream erupted from inside that ball of insects. Ben and Ren were both baffled by what could be happening to let out such a scream; that was until, the bugs scattered off of the man.

The two couldn't even believe what they were seeing as the man that stood before them looked more insect then man; its legs and face that of a grasshopper, with a constant drool that dripped from his mouth.

Too dumbfounded from this sudden change in appearance, the madman sprouted insect wings from his back and made a head start.

* * *

Meanwhile Gwen, with the use of her powers, was able to help contain the radical insects while leading the hysterical people to the nearest exit. Those times that Alex was studying her ability felt to her like it doubled as training, now able to use some spells that would usually leave her breathless she was able to perform with very little effort.

After taking out another batch of bees and leading the people out the exit, she watched as Alex ran up to her. She wanted to wave and call out to him, but while in disguised the witch know that would be a bad idea. "Thank you for saving us, is there anything I can do to help?"

He gave the young teen a wink with a gentle smile on his face, her boyfriend was good and not drawing much suspicion during such an erratic time. "No thanks fine citizen," she smirked back, "just doing what a super heroine can do."

However, with this short chat she failed to notice the mutant of a man flying straight at the two teens; screeching wildly as the creature charged straight towards its prey.

Before G... Lucky Girl could react at all, Alex stood in front of her; his arms erected to his sides, glaring at the insect that came towards them.

But once Clancy looked into those cold ocean blue eyes, he instantly stopped in his tracks. Screeching wildly what seemed to be fear to the orange-haired teen where the mutant tried to fly away.

However, Ben used one of his many bandages to ensnare the elusive insect just as Ren froze Clancy from thorax to abdomen, instantly stopping the other insects which quickly flew or crawled away.

"Gw..." Ben nearly blew their cover, even though he didn't know that Alex already knew Gwen's other life, "I-I mean Lucky Girl, are you all right?"

Not really sure herself, still wondering why Clancy acted like that just before; why was he so terrified of her boyfriend just a second ago. "Yeah I'm fine," but she looked around, "where did your partner go?"

Ben looked around; he didn't even realize that Ren wasn't by his side anymore. He had noticed that she had been acting strange all day, but hoped she was all right. "Well I see it is all calm here, so I'll be on my way."

The alien hero made his way out of the teens sight, Alex turned back to look at his lovely girlfriend with that warm smile on his face. "Well I will head out with the rest of the people," but whispered, "I'll be waiting at the entrance, see you soon."

* * *

Ben, back to his human form, looked as quickly as he could for the girl he cared for; knowing she couldn't have gotten for within that short time. "Ren!" he called out for her, "Ren where are you?!"

He did his best to stop his body from shaking from both uncertainty and fear, wondering why Ren would have just ran off like that without telling him why. Hundreds of thoughts crossed his mind as he searched every nook and cranny he could think of.

The one thought that crossed his mind more then any of the others was that what ever must be wrong was probably all his fault. If he only didn't give her the cold shoulder when she got the ability to smile, try to see if she was having any problems adjusting to earthling life, or maybe if he wasn't so dense he might have picked up on the times she was distraught. With these thoughts, he believed he really was a hopeless moron, starting to wonder why Ren would even want to hang out with a guy as stupid as he was.

A small green flash just on the other side of the wall got his attention, running as fast as he could to get on the other side.

Once he made it, he was glad to see Ren was at least safe, but he could see that the blue-haired girl shaking from head to toe. Her fingers struggling over that packet of chicklet gum, almost like she was desperate just to start chewing on a piece.

She didn't seem to notice him as he moved closer to her, clearly seeing streams of tears falling down her face; he never once thought that she was in such a vulnerable state; only proving to himself how stupid he has been while around her.

Ren accidentally busted out her last three pieces of Aten gum onto the ground in front of her. Frantically she grabbed all three pieces, planning on taking them all at once, but was stopped when Ben called out. "Ren!"

Her scarlet eyes, now swollen and soaked with tears, looked up at the teen while the gum just fell out of her shaking hand. "B-Ben?"

Even though he believed the reason must have obviously been right in front of him, he just had to ask. "Ren what's wrong, why are you crying?"

When he tried to step towards her, she moved herself away; watching as some of the lights surrounding them shatter without warning. The alien was so cold she just couldn't stop her body from shaking. But he approached her quicker, sitting on his knees, placing his warm hands on her bare shoulder and looked directly into her eyes with his warm green ones.

Ben could only hate himself for not realizing this sooner, feeling her skin as cold as when he first met her while her eyes clearly showed him so much doubt and fear; wondering how he could have been so blind to have missed this before, not deserving a title of hero if he couldn't even protect her. "Ren please tell me what's wrong."

"I-I'm scared," the boy could clearly hear the distraught tone in her voice while more glass objects just exploded around them, her body still shaking with his hands on her snow white shoulders, "I just can't seem to figure out the way of earthlings: the act of intimacy just seems to be an entertainment purpose, this horrid thing you call a Divorce, why you humans would go to war with your own species countless times, offspring saying such hate filled words to those who gave them life. I do not understand why earthlings could or would act like this."

She was in so much pain where he never realized, so he did the only thing he could think that could help; gently pulling her into a warm hug where he felt his shirt quickly becoming soaked in tears. "I really wish that I could answer that Ren, I really do."

Her body still shaking while in his hold, yet her body was quickly warming up to his touch. "But I will do what ever I can to protect you," feeling his strong grip slowly tightening around her, shaking against her as well, "and not because I try to be a hero, but because I care about you, probably more then you know."

"Why," her crackling whisper barely reached his ear, "why would you care about me like that? According to your male species, women that are attractive have excessive fat in their chest, long hair, full figure caused from under-eating and skin that has been highly exposed to the sun, where my chest is small, short hair, a petite body structure and skin as white as your Earth snow; to my information I am as unattractive as I was on my plan..."

But before she could finish, she was cut off from the warm feeling that suddenly filled her body, a warm feeling that entered through her lips; her body instantly stopped shaking as she could see the colorful lights exploding in the sky.

Feeling the strange, but very pleasant, sensation on her lips break, she heard him reply. "Because, I'm not like the rest of my species; you've heard Gwen admit to that countless of times."

Ren let out a small giggle, something Ben was glad to hear come from her again.

* * *

Gwen stumbled inside of her house; not quite the romantic evening she had planned out but an exhausting day none-the-less. All she wanted to do now was head up to her room and crash onto her pillow.

But before she could make it past her den, she heard the voice of her mother call out. "Gwendolyn, I think we need to have a talk."

Her half opened eyes looked over towards her mother looking down at her. The young teen couldn't recall doing anything wrong as her mom only using her full name if she did.

However, that was before she looked at the television that was on right behind her mom; the witch's eyes shot wide open, at the news report of the amusement park.

To Be Continued

What are Pharaoh's plans, how will Gwen's mother react to her daughter's abilities, and will I leave Ren and Ben happily ever after? Read and Review to find out.


	10. Gwen's mom was a delinquent?

Just incase some of you were wondering, that is the form Clancy takes after he joins up with the Negative 10, the two part final that Cartoon Network forgot to show.

Also I was wondering if anyone noticed 646635, if you play around with them, spell Bugger.

Chapter 10: Gwen's mom was a delinquent?

Nearly exhausted to the point of wanting to just crash on the floor below her, Gwen tried her hardest to keep up and innocent expression to her mother; a bit of a difficult task to do even at her prime. "What's wrong," letting out a small yawn, "mom?"

Her mother didn't need to say a word, motioning with her index finger for her to come over. Inside her half awake mind, those thoughts of how she thought Alex would react to her abilities started to return; hoping that she was wrong since she was her one and only daughter.

Slowly dragging her lead-like feet over to her mother; keeping her cool till she knew exactly what her mother was talking about. So once she was inside their den, she asked. "Did I leave a soda on the," letting out another yawn while rubbing her half blurry emerald eyes, "table or something?"

"I think you know what I am talking about," her mother's tone was serious, pointing to the video of herself using her abilities. With her mother the high-ranking lawyer that she was there wasn't much a high school girl could get past her legal mind, "is there something you want to tell me?"

Still rubbing her drooping eyes, wondering how much longer her body was going to keep her standing; there wasn't much her brain could process as a believable back story. "Well some madman attacked the amusement park I was at and they saved us," the yawns coming quicker, thinking the soft carpet of their den will soon be her bed for the night, "what's the problem?"

The witch could clearly see through her dreary eyes that her mom wasn't buying it; rolling her eyes like she would always do when she caught someone in a lie. So she walked up to daughter and placed her hand on her head

After barely a second, Gwen couldn't explain why but her body was full of energy once again, looking up at her mom who is now smiling down at her. "Now," her mother's voice not serious any longer, but filled with excitement and joy, "when were you going to tell me that you awoken your gift? I was starting to wonder if it was going to skip your generation just like my dad, being usually around ten when it awakens inside of you. Good to know just like your mother you're a late bloomer."

While her mother laughed from her comment, the orange-haired teen couldn't help but blush from embarrassment, unconsciously crossing her arms over her chest.

* * *

It didn't take long for Gwen to tell her mother the whole story: when she first used her powers, how she has been training with her powers with her grandfather, and even how Alex was trying to understand her powers through a scientific means. 

Once she was finished explaining the details, half expecting for her mother to either be a little upset or disappointed that she didn't tell her sooner, instead it didn't seem like she could be any happier; twirling a strand of her short orange hair. "It's kind of funny that you mentioned it like that, it brings back old memories."

Gwen felt like she must have been hanging around Ren too long, tilting her head to the side to her mother's statement. "What do you mean mom?"

She watched as her mother had an unusual embarrassed smile on her face while her finger twirled that strand of hair faster; letting out a short giggle before giving her answer. "Do you remember the story of how I met your father?"

The young witch didn't understand what that had anything to do with this, but she answered her mother anyway. "Yeah, if I remember correctly you met as freshmen in high school on the fieldtrip to the Natural History Museum."

Gwen noticed that her mother seemed to twirl that strand of hair faster, a nervous smile clearly shown across her face. "Could you get me the photo album of when your father and I were teenagers; I believe it should still be in the top shelf of the cabinet labeled **High School Memories.**"

The lawyer's daughter knew exactly what photo album she was talking about, looking at it from time to time when she was younger just to see what her parents looked like when they were younger.

Coming back to the den minutes later, holding the blue album under her arm until she sat back down on the couch; quickly opening it to the page where it showed her mother's freshman picture. The girl in this picture seemed worlds away from her mother today: small fame glasses over her shy brown eyes, gentle frail skin and long orange hair. "I'm still shocked you looked like this mom."

Her mother seemed like she was unable to hold back her giggles. "That's because, it wasn't what I looked like when I was a teen."

The teen was baffled; her mother signaled for her daughter to hand over the album which she did without question. Once in her grasp, she closed the book and mumbled a few words under her breath, too fast for Gwen to understand.

The book in her hand changed from its blue color to a green; this still shocking the teenage girl that her mother was able to use magic just like her. However, that wasn't nearly as shocking as when her mother open the book, and the picture replacing her freshman picture was that of a ticked off looking female teen, two long orange ponytails that went passed her back, and heavy set clothes that only looked to be there to make her look tougher. "M-Mom?"

"That's the real me back when I was a freshman," Mrs. Tennyson answered calmly, half expecting to see that bewildered look on her daughter's face; expecting it since the day she gave birth to such a beautiful healthy girl that just seemed too precious for this world, "let's just say, back then was a different and harder time for me."

Gwen's emerald eyes never shifted from that picture before her, and with everything that happened so far, Gwen could only ask. "You were a delinquent?"

Her mother couldn't help but laugh after hearing that. "Let's just say my parents weren't as open towards the discovery of my gift, so I rebelled a little: skipped my classes, badmouthed the teachers that deserved it, got in fights with girls and guys, and won them all I might add," she added the last part proudly, "but don't worry, I always got straight A's and studied to keep them up."

She could tell that was the question on her daughter's mind, watching as she let out that held breath just after mentioning that last tidbit. "But it was on a day that I decided to come to school where I first met your father," she started down memory lane, "I was really ticked when the candy machine ate my dollar, and with everyone in class I thought I could get away with using my magic to get it. Yet at that exact time your father happened to be heading to the bathroom and saw with his own eyes the use of my gift."

"How did dad act when he first saw your gift?" her daughter seemed to be getting interested in her little story. "Was he scared?"

"Actually it was the exact opposite, he couldn't have been more thrilled," she scratched the outside of her cheek, remembering the fond memories of her youth, "at that time he was the entire Science Club and wanted to instantly study me as soon as possible where I quickly told him no."

Gwen looked over at the next page where she became a bit baffled; looking at a medical report for fractured ribs, dislocated arm, and a broken nose. "Mom, what's this about?"

Looking down at the medical report, she smiled. "Let's just say, saying no didn't get him to leave me alone," which instantly caused her daughter to be a little nervous, her mother seemed to be a violent one in her youth, "not to mention the issue of my gift was still a touchy subject to me. I went to apologies to him at the hospital where his younger twin brother gave me quite a shock, thinking he was a fast healer; but he was also the most hostile towards me, which I knew I deserved."

Gwen could easily pick up on the distraught tone from her mother's story, probably leaving something out that her uncle did to her those years ago. "So what happened after dad got out of the hospital?" wanting to get her mother off the dark thought as soon as possible.

"Well, to make up for it I volunteered to be his ginnie pig for a month, using what ever that primitive school lab had, his genuine know-how, and I also helped speed up his recovering with some simple spells."

She got where her mom was going with this story, just like how Alex was trying to help her understand her power as her dad helped mom. "So is that when you fell in love with dad."

"Oh no," she let out a giggle, "we hated each other back then. We argued all the time, I would occasionally point out my disbelief that anything in that school lab would have any use, nicknamed him small fry or peewee, and a time or two I would hit him upside the head if he really ticked me off."

Gwen looked at her mother with only skepticism in her eyes, wondering how her mother could be so cheerful discussing how she once was a delinquent in her teens. "But I think if I had to guess, I might have been starting to feel a spark between us with a few days left in that month when your father gave me this," revealing the rose colored gem just under her shirt, sparking in the eyes of the young witch, "he somehow figured out that some types of minerals could amplify certain spells I used. He was the first person to give me a gift after I discovered my powers, even if it was just towards studying my powers this necklace meant a lot to me."

The young teen could hear the sadness in her mother tone, holding back the small tears she could feel that was on the brims of her emerald eyes. "So what happened after the month was over, did you tell him?"

The mother gently shook her head. "Like my lovely orange hair and gift you also inherited my pride and drive. After the month ended, I cut my hair to the look you see before you now and just showed up at his lab, stating 'that if you got this far with this worthless junk let's see what else you can come up with.'"

Gwen smiled, that did sound like something her mother would say. "What did dad say?"

"Well first he was completely shocked that I cut my hair but then got right back to work; after that we spent most of the high school year together, even if I was just a test subject it didn't seem to matter anymore. I even was welcome to come and go at his house; his father and mother were so very kind but his brother still never trusted me."

"Because you hurt dad?"

The lawyer giggled. "Well that and I always beat him in sports; that really ticked off your uncle."

Gwen just rolled her eyes; that was Ben's father all right. "Your father and I seemed to hang out all the time, but I never thought of it as anything past me just being a ginnie pig. That was until, he took me to my house to confront my parents on the subject, and back then that was the last thing I ever wanted to do."

Her mother took a deep breath before continuing, rubbing some moister that started to appear on her eyes. "During the whole conversation, mom and dad never called me by any name besides monster, demon or spawn, it was probably the first time your father saw me in such a weak state, for the first time I was unable to defend myself. But it seemed like once he could tell our conversation was going nowhere he stepped in, wondering how they could be so cruel to their own daughter. He then said those words that I will never forget. He said, "I love her, so why can't you, her own parents, love her too?"

The young girl just wanted to grab a box of tissues right there to hearing that. "How did you react to hearing that?"

"Obviously you can tell I was speechless to hearing that, but the look on your father's face was priceless; I think he just accidentally let it slip out in the heat of the moment. However it seemed to have done the trick as mom and dad started to grow back to their old selves, before I had this ability."

She then wrapped her arms around her daughter, gently squeezing her tighter, warmly. "I just want you to know sweetie, your father and I are always here for you if you ever need anything. I don't want you to feel like you need to hide anything from us that might be bothering you."

The young teen could easily tell that her mother didn't wish for her to suffer like she did at her age, returning the tearful hug. "Don't worry mom, if I have any problems I will come right to you or dad."

* * *

Gwen closed the door as she entered her room; today had been one exhausting day: dealing with a madman, saving the people of the park, finding out her mother is also a witch. After a day like this she just wanted to go straight to bed. 

But something else got her attention besides the softness of her bed that was calling to her, and that would be the program that was running on her computer.

It was a program she designed herself; something just never seemed to settle with her with those three, like why would three people with an unusual power all of a sudden attack their town of all places.

So she set up this program, seeing if there was anything linking them to anything that seemed plausible. She actually created a program like this a few years ago, just something to find references towards school reports; with some reprogramming it suited her needs perfectly.

However, she groaned under her breath, her program might need some updating as all this thing discovered was the three matched characteristics to characters of Greek Mythology: Medusa, Hercules, and an Acid Breather.

Luckily, she had some extra information to add from the last madman that just attacked; entering some information on a man that could control insects. Yet sadly came up with nothing.

She sat there for a few minutes, thinking over everything she could remember that happened just a few hours ago. It then hit her; those insects he was controlling were a bit peculiar. So she entered: Scarabs, Honey Bees, Locus, and Millipedes.

It seemed that hit the mark, but all that linked to was insects that were worshiped during the time of the Egyptians. It being a theme park based on Egypt didn't throw up any red flags for her; rubbing her eyes that were becoming tired once again. "This is nothing, looks like it was a waste of time after all," she groaned.

With that bed of hers looking more comfortable by the second, all she wanted to do was turn off her computer and dream about receiving a Noble Prize and Scientific Achievement Award while just being elected President of the United States, oh did she love that dream.

But just before she shut down her monitor, her program seemed to make a few last matches. Out of all of them, one match made her body start to shake to where her eyes couldn't even blink. What matched the two was... a Sphinx.

* * *

Glow of the computer screen only seemed to enhance the sadistic grin tonight, Pharaoh was completely overjoyed with all the extra data he was getting about the alien's abilities; never would he have guessed that the Omnitrix had DNA of the Thep Khufans (Underwrap) or that with certain changes in ones body can affect the alien's abilities so drastically. 

The only thing he was disappointed in that night was Ben had to stop Ren at just that time. Planning on her taking more then one at a time a lot sooner, being the only flaw in the product his company was working out. One piece at a time was perfectly safe, but three or more at a time would cause the heart to pump too hard, proving fatal. "She is the only one that knows I know more then what just happens on this planet. I was hoping that would have gotten rid of that only loose thread; but no reason to dwell on the past; that never gets you anywhere. Yet it was amusing seeing how just a simple case of Culture Shock reacted in her body."

His private line interrupted his thoughts, knowing that it was the update from Dr. Animo; and hoping it was good news, for the doctor's sake anyway. "Good to hear from you Dr. Animo, I was just about to call you. You have great timing but I'm hoping you have good news."

But Pharaoh could only hear stuttering on the other side of the line, starting to become concerned to the doctors reaction. "Dr. Animo, what is the news on your research?"

"I can hardly believe it myself Pharaoh; this devise is the most advance technology I have ever seen even from the information on intergalactic weaponry you gave me." The Doctor completely ecstatic the CEO could barely understand him. "It is so amazing I would work on it and want to pay you just for the experience."

"You might give me ideas doctor with a speech like that," Pharaoh chuckled, "but along with your written report I want to hear your condensed version."

The genetic expert took a deep breath, needing to calm down before explain the intricate detail of what he found. "This devise has complete condensed forms of at least ten thousand different aliens, their genetic codes so perfectly preserved it's breathtaking. It also has a variable system so that the species own DNA can combine with the alien DNA, preserving the dominate state of consciousness which is why from what I've seen those kids are still themselves after they activate their devices."

These tidbits of information were quite useful to the CEO of Sphinx Corp., but not what he was looking for. "That does explain a few questions I had, however you know that wasn't all I hired you to do."

"Of course sir, sorry if I wasted your precious time," Pharaoh could hear the doctor looking over the paperwork, "now with that variable system, it is possible for your plan to work. I can start working on it right away, just give me the word."

A dark chuckling could easily be heard through the phone, everything he had been working towards was almost within his grasp. It was almost too easy. "Then I'm having you transferred to the Military R&D department where you will be leading up the new FREAK Project. If everything goes well you will be looking at a very bright future."

"Thank you Pharaoh, I will not let you down," where the line was soon disconnected.

The sadistic grin on his face was wider then ever; with everything he planned right on schedule he couldn't have been happier. Seeing soon the species of this world will be given the help it has desperately needed for countless millennia.

To Be Continued

What is Pharaoh's plan and will the Tennysons be able to stop it before it is too late? Read and review to find out.


	11. New changes

Review

Chapter 11: New changes

It was another boring day at school for this alien hero, after all that happened the other day today just seemed to move so very slow for him; just resting his head on the lunch table as he chatted with his cousin on that cloudy October afternoon; hoping Ren would come back soon from her chat with the teacher. "So your mother is also a witch," letting out an unintentional yawn, "that's a surprise."

Gwen sucked on her straw, hoping that Alex's meeting with his club would end soon. "Yeah, it was a little strange to find that out, not to mention my mom once beat up my dad," the orange hair teen couldn't help but let a small giggle slip from her lips, knowing it was wrong to do, it was just funny to hear out loud, "however it makes me feel relieved that my mom and dad's feelings for me haven't changed from my powers. It's also good to know that my powers are hereditary."

The droopy eyed teen couldn't help but groan; he didn't want to think at the moment, especially during lunchtime. "Gwen, you know I'm going to ask," he complained.

She rolled her eyes with an annoyed stare, forgetting this was Ben she was speaking too. "It means it's inherited through genetics dufus, like how we both have our father's green eyes." But after explaining without trying to hide her irritation, she noticed that even though it was her dufus of a cousin, he was more tired then usual in the afternoon. "So did you not get enough sleep last night? I believed after a night like that you and Ren would have just crashed once you walked into your house."

She watched as her Omnitrix wearing family member looked away from her; covering his face up with his boney arms. This sad attempt of evading her question just irritated her even more; throwing her waded up napkin at his partially covered head. "If you don't tell me I'm going to throw something heavier next."

"All right if it will get you off my back," this situation only reminding him of the time when they were children, but instead of throwing something at him she would slam him on the ground and keep him pinned till he answered her. How Alex could deal with such a violent girl this alien hero would never know. "Once me and Ren got in mom and dad still wasn't home. We both weren't that tired so we headed to the den and watched some television."

He could feel his face starting to grow a little hotter from the next part of his story, and it was no help he could feel his cousin's stare burning a hole in the top of his head. "Well I don't know when I fell asleep but I awoke when I heard my mom's deafening squeal of joy. After that I didn't get to sleep till the ringing in my ears stopped around four."

Gwen could easily see what he was trying to pull; he would always try to sneak only half the story by her. Yet after all this time they had been together she thought he should have learned by now he can't get anything by her. "What else aren't you telling me?"

The young teen tried to hide his face deeper between his arms. Sadly, he knew that she wasn't going to let up till he spilled the rest of the beans, something he knew he was going to regret. "Well," feeling his voice still shaky at best, "when mom found us, I was lying down on the couch with... Ren, in my arms."

The young witch paused for a few seconds, not even hearing the students' mindless chatter as she could clearly see the redness growing on her cousin's face; her mind still processing the information that was just given to her.

Ben looked up at the stone-like face, getting an idea she might be thinking something far worse then what actually happened. "It wasn't anything over PG Gwen. We sat down on the couch, I suggested she to sit a little closer. She and I lied down, holding her in my arms; then we just fell asleep, that's it."

"Oh it wasn't that," having a hard time controlling the shock and surprised reaction in her tone; her dimwit stubborn cousin was growing up before her eyes, "I'm just shocked that you and Ren are so close now. Are you two finally a couple?"

Ben wished he was anywhere but here at the moment, talking to someone he used to despise with a passion about stuff like this; it just didn't feel right at all. "Yeah, we're a couple now. Now I just have to hope I don't screw it up."

The depression lingering in his wavering tone was as clear as day to the witch; getting the idea that Ben thought he wasn't good enough to be with Ren. On this subject Gwen would finally agree with him on something, but since she promised to help Ren out if she could there wasn't much the green-eyed girl could do. "Even though I could think of countless reasons how you would screw up, what in-particular do you think you will do?"

Without even looking up from where his head rest he could tell she had that annoying smug grin on her face; it was as clear as day on her tone alone. But he didn't have the energy to argue, he really didn't understand how he could deserve a girl like Ren or why she would even like him in the first place. "I'm serious Gwen," meeting her gaze with sincere eyes, "I mean, I was so stupid I didn't even notice that Ren was in so much pain. How can I deserve someone as smart and beautiful as her if I can't even protect her when she needed me the most?"

Gwen rubbed her eyes; why did he have to ruin all the chances she had at throwing so many amusing taunts with that heartfelt confession. He might have been an annoying cousin but this want-a-be hero was her annoying cousin, and if he really needed the help what else was there to do. "Well I don't know why but she seemed to like you when you were your pain-in-the-neck of a normal self; so just be yourself around her and everything should be all right, "she winked, "not to mention from what you told me, that wall between you two is gone; so I doubt you will be having any problems anytime soon."

A quiet snicker slipped out of the young boy's lips, feeling a strange weight lifting off of his shoulders. Although he smiled that cunning smile of his, looking up at that sadistic orange-haired cousin of his. "If I didn't know any better Gwen, I get the feeling you like playing matchmaker."

He knew he could be a bit dense at times, but she couldn't have been clearer even if she was Ghostfreak; trying to hide her obvious silent answer with a mask of pride. "I don't know what you're talking about," her stuttering didn't help her case, "I'm just doing what I can to help, because if I don't there will be a disaster and with what we had to deal with last night I don't want one anytime soon."

"If you say so," drinking down the second soda before he even touched his meal.

* * *

A warm smile never seemed to leave the young aliens face since the night before, her cheeks starting to ache from how much she was smiling; a pain that she didn't mind having, as long as the feeling of his arms warming her didn't leave her body. 

Though the stiffening of her face was becoming more apparent to her with each passing day, it didn't matter to the petite scarlet eyed girl anymore. How the unusual transparent wall between them was finally gone the distribution of emotions was smoother then ever; wishing to soon feel his warmth once more, her cheeks aching again.

"Hey Ren," her gentle warming thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Alex's voice, slowly approaching where she stood; again for reasons she couldn't explain, in spite of her body as warm as it was, she felt it was sucked out of her body with just his presents, "I expected you to already be at the lunch, did you have a chat with a teacher?"

The young alien suffered with those strange bumps on her arms while her young body did all it could to stop her shivering. She constantly wondered why she could feel no emotions whatsoever coming from Alex Sovereign; almost like he was a black hole to them while giving off that supposedly warm smile of his. "Y-Yes, Ms. Moot wished for me to join the Academic Team."

There was nothing wrong with his facial expression, nothing to explain why she was reading this complete lack of emotions from him. Watching as he rubbed the back of his head with that smile still on his snow white face. "That's great to hear, are you going to do it?"

Moving her gentle scarlet eyes to the right, feeling like she was about to freeze any second if she looked directly at him any longer. "I'm still deciding, she even asked me to attend the competition today after school."

"Well there is no harm in trying it out Ren," her friend's boyfriend explained, "a school, to many student's theories, isn't a jail, but it is a way to gain experience for once you leave these grounds. Not to mention I know with how smart you are you will be a natural, and being on the Academic Team could really help on your college application."

He was kind, considerate, warm and friendly; so why did she feel so cold whenever he approached her. "Thank you, Alex."

"Well we should head to the lunchroom before all the good food is taken," hearing him walking off while her eyes kept looking away.

The young teen felt a strange emotion deep in the pit of her stomach as he walked away; this unusual emotion caused these words to slip from her lips. "Please, don't hurt Gwen."

Alex's footsteps ceased to that comment; the frail skin girl didn't know herself why she would say something like that, this guy before her never once showing anything else besides love and devotion towards Gwen.

Ren's eyes flashed over when Alex turned around: the shocked and befuddled expression clearly shown on his snow white face. "Why would you think I would hurt Gwen? I want nothing more then for her happiness."

His tone and actions didn't give off any signal that he was lying; so why did she get this cold from him. "If you want, I'll even give you my word I'll use my body to protect her if her life is endangered."

She tried to fight it, believing it must just be something interfering when she read his emotions. But why, why only did she get this feeling from him? "Like my father's rules to live by number five: If you go against your word you are no better then scum."

The blue haired girl didn't have any reason to distrust him, but her delicate skin still felt like ice. "Then l-let us head t-to the c-cafeteria."

* * *

Ten minutes after the final school bell, with most of the teens cheering to run out of the halls some of them stayed a bit longer to watch the Academic Team take on another team from a neighboring school. 

Alex, Gwen and Ben cheering on Ren silently during her first match, since Ben already has two strikes against himself. The brown haired teen wondered how you could call this a sport if you couldn't cheer out loud.

It was down to the few remaining questions between the two teems of five, but with how it was going the other team should have just given up at thirty-seven to nineteen. Like Alex said, Ren was a natural, but not only with her academic knowledge, she was also lightning fast at hitting that buzzard; something this brown haired teen knew very well with that girls vs. guys of pictionary his family did that one night.

Now with thirty-eight to twenty, it came down to the final question; this one worth extra points because of the level of difficulty. "During the time of Alexander the Great, what where the countries he conquered in the Achaemenid Persian Empire: name five?"

Within split seconds after the Quiz Master finished that comment, both teams slammed down on that buzzard; either they knew what they were or were at least trying to beat to other team to the punch was up to debate at that moment.

But with the help of the technology around the elder man, he was able to determine who hit the buzzer first; moving his hand over to the home team. "Bellwood High for the final question."

It wasn't Ren who hit the buzzer that time, with her lack of knowledge towards BC era in earthling history. This time it was Glen Logan, their team's specialist in Early Civilization History and Captain; a want-a-be pretty boy and from his tone alone one could tell he was just full of himself. "I would have to say the answers to this simple question would have to be: Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, and Egypt."

The cocky tone in itself was enough to make Ben want to barf; nothing ticked him off more then people who thought they were better then everyone else. "That is correct," the Quiz Master answered in a tone that matched the eye-drop guy from those commercials, "that brings the final score, fifty-eight to twenty. Winners: Bellwood High."

Now Ben was able to cheer this time along with the rest of the Home Team audience; first having his doubts of this Jeopardy sport, but he did find it interesting when some of the sports questions came up.

Ren was eagerly congratulated by her teammates, mainly for how she was able to get the team more then half the points they had. It was a new feeling she got while around this team, it was the feeling she got while around the Tennysons; acceptance. This feeling felt very strange outside of the home she called her family, strange but warm.

But Glen quickly made his way through the group, and unlike Alex to this blue-haired teen he was very easy to read. She didn't even need to look into his eyes to see his boastful fraud front; it was something she was used to from Myu back at GEA. "My you are as smart as you are beautiful," watching as he flicked a strand of his bleached blonde shoulder-length hair out of his face; moving his finger gently under her chin to give her that strange gaze, wondering if earthling females were supposed to be attracted by this strange attempt at courting, "how about you can give me the honor of joining me for some coffee at this nice little spot I know in town."

Backing just out of his range to get him to stop touching her chin, wondering why the males of this planet would put up so many fake emotions like that, "No thank you, I already have a date, and my p...," nearly forgetting that the term Potential Partners wasn't the same like on her planet, "b-boyfriend was patient enough to postpone it till after this competition."

The boy before her chuckled; befuddled by his reaction as she did not recall saying anything of the humorous sort. "You mean the rumors are true, that you and that moron are an item? He couldn't tell the difference between Hieroglyphs and a fortune cookie," feeling as he gently held her frail hand in his; once again giving her that unusual glance, "someone like you can easily do much better then an airhead like him."

It looked to the scarlet eyed girl that he was trying another strange earthling courting attempt with his face moving closer to her hand. But just before the two met, her hand was pulled away by the earthling she truly held dear. "Leave her alone, Glen."

Once again, that smug grin from Glen was something Ren was too familiar with from Myu; how that look annoyed her to no end. "Well I'm only speaking the truth Ben," and a cocky tone was added as well, "I'm still wondering how you of all people could have bagged such a looker that is second in school grades; I thought by just living with you she would have gone insane."

Gwen watched her cousin's reactions to these constant insults; easily able to tell he was doing all he could to refrain himself from slugging this guy. "Hey," she approached the argument with a tightened fist, "no one can talk to my cousin like that, only I can talk to my cousin like that!"

Glen looked to know when he was outmatched; putting up his manicured hands defensively. "All right all right I understand when I'm not wanted," yet he couldn't help but give a wink, "but with the Cross State Competition coming up I might still have a chance. Adieu."

Only wishing this guy left sooner, the group watched to make sure that Glen left the auditorium. Once gone, Gwen instantly started some kind of conversation with Ren about the competition in so much intellectual chatting; the brown haired teen felt like he needed a translator just to figure out what they were saying.

"I'm glad to see Ren did well on her first time," Alex slowly approached the young alien hero, that warm smile still gracing his face, "it's good to see everything went as smoothly as it did."

"You mean you didn't think she would blow the competition away?" Ben's voice filled to the brim with energy, completely confident that she would have had no problem wiping the floor with the other team. "You might be a big-shot at being at having the top grades in the school but that doesn't mean she isn't just as good."

However after saying that out loud made this teen start to think; he knew Alex was smart, but how could he have better grades then Ren, it just didn't seem humanly possible.

Alex only chuckled to Ben's accusation, slowly shaking his head. "It wasn't that I doubt she would have 'blow the competition away' because of her academic knowledge; I was just unsure if she would succumb to performance anxiety," noticing Benjamin was looking at him with an unusual baffled face, giving this teen with snow white skin a idea as to why, "Stage Fright."

Nodding his head in understanding, Alex continued. "A lot of the smartest people in our history can easily succumb to performance anxiety; it can happen in all of us. IQ just has nothing to do with how one reacts in front of a crowd."

"That does make since," Ben only able to slightly hang on to the conversation, after this battle between knowledge he wanted nothing more then to get out of school to give his aching brain a rest, "but I know she will be great in anything she tries, she's stronger than she looks Alex."

The teen besides the Tennyson let out another soft chuckle, their eyes still focused on the two girls before them in the now empty auditorium. "There is no doubt in my mind that she is strong; which reminds me, congrats that you two are finally going out."

Ben's face felt it getting warmer from that simple comment, remembering when Alex was able to figure out that he had a crush on her in the first place; not to mention he himself still couldn't believe he was going out with her, someone like him. "T-Thanks," gently rubbing the back of his soft brown head, "I just have to hope I don't screw it up."

"It's not rocket-science for a long lasting relationship Ben," Alex added his two cents to the alien hero's predicament, "all you have to do it makes sure that the attraction you have to her isn't just physically based, if you just have an attraction towards each other because of looks or touch it will never last. Now that you're dating just get to know her better. Since she is from another country her culture can feel as different to you as if she was from another planet."

With talk like that Ben sometimes wondered how Alex would act if he knew she was from another planet; almost letting out a chuckle from the thought. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Also you might want to know, if she does go with the Academic Team she will be leaving on Friday for the Cross State Competition," the ocean blue eyed teen explain, looking over at the teen beside him who wasn't even trying to hide his expression of depression, and small traits of fear. "But don't think of that now Ben, that's still a good four days away. What do you have planned for a first date?"

Trying to shake off those dark thoughts he focused on the conversation at hand. "Well I am a little strapped for cash this week, so I was going to teach her how to cook and then have what we make," his tone completely depressed, feeling like it sounded really stupid now hearing it out in the open, "it sounds dumb doesn't it?"

"Actually no, that sounds like a great idea Ben," with the first thought from Alex's reaction was he was probably just pulling his leg, yet from the sound of the guy's voice his reaction sounded real, "It's a way you can spend time with each other on something new and have a good meal, sounds like a peaceful way to spend an evening with her."

Ben was still a little confused from Alex's actions, was this guy really serious? "It's a good thing you know how to cook; I've literally burned water."

Now something like this really shocked Ben, something this guy wasn't able to do? "Well good luck with it Ben, I can only wish good fortune between you two."

Still feeling uneasy talking to Alex about something like this; it just didn't feel right talking about stuff like this with someone else, wondering if that was just a normal reaction. "T-Thanks dude."

To Be Continued

I was planning on making this chapter longer but cut off the ending for the next chapter. Anyway soon Pharaoh's plan will be revealed, if his son is in on it or is an unwitting pawn, and the more Gwen starts to know the more her life and the lives of everyone she cares about becomes at risk; to find out how just read and review (seriously review).

PS: when I though of the name for Glen Logan I wasn't thinking about the ten puns. I just thought of the two biggest flirts in American animation: Glen Quagmire and Garfield Logan (better known as Beast Boy).


	12. Simple times are short

Chapter 12: Simple times

Anon I wish you either logged in or left an email address so I could have just sent you Alex's Father's rules to live by. Well for anyone else that is interested here are the five that have been shown so far.

1. Family always comes first  
2. Sex before marriage or going out with someone while in a relationship is a vile act  
3. Always be early so to never be late  
4. Any act to harm women or children is unforgivable  
5. If you go against your word you are no better than scum

Anyway, keep up with all the reviews.

Chapter 12: Simple times are short

Alex gently lead Gwen into the main room of his house, confusing the orange hair teen as right after studying they would usually head down to the lab; stopping just in front of something that was hidden by a velvet drape. "What is this, Alex?" One couldn't help be curious in a situation like this.

He looked into her with those breathless ocean blue eyes, how much her body just wanting to melt from that gaze that was enhanced along with his white warm smile. "It's just something I have been working on for sometime," feeling his soft hand starting to caress her cheek, she didn't know how hot her body could get without melting, "I've kind of noticed every time I've told you that you are beautiful, I can see you acting like you don't believe me."

He was right; even now she could feel her body unconsciously react to the idea that she was anywhere close to being attractive. The young witch just couldn't see how she, with short hair, tomboyish figure, and a late bloomer could be striking at all. "I realized that if just suggesting looking into a mirror all you would see is what your own mind sees, so I tried out one of my hobbies to show you how you are beautiful."

Still unsure of how anything could make her look beautiful flooded her mind; it was just something she couldn't see with how she was now. It was either from what her own ideals of beauty is, to all those years she was made fun of for the way she looked; names even she wouldn't call her cousin no matter how mad she was at him. 

"I'm still not that good in this field so if there is any screw ups don't take it personally," was what he said just before removing that drape with one felt movement.

It was a portrait of her dressed in that purple dress she wore on their One Week Anniversary. Gwen didn't know what he was talking about as his artwork was amazing; the visual rendering of her nearly looked like he just blew up a photograph. Yet there was something she just couldn't explain; this was her no doubt about it, but even she would admit that the woman before in this painting was beautiful. So why, why that when she looked in a mirror she couldn't see the beautiful woman she sees in this painting. The young witch just wanted to cry, did Alex truly see her as this lovely woman?

Using her arm to wipe her rapidly moistening sea green eyes; she was having a little trouble getting the right words to come out of her mouth. "I-It is... beautiful."

"Your mom really helped by sending me all these pictures," revealing to the young witch the stack of pictures her mom took on that day, now rolling her eyes, "especially this one picture that's picture frame size."

Looking at the picture of them together blown up to the height of her leg gave her a slight headache, wondering why her mother always had to overdo the little things; not even wanting to remember her first birthday party as a teen.

However, that brought up a question she wanted to ask Alex, nearly forgetting about it as she admired the painting before her. Alex was familiar with her parents, but she didn't even know the name of his father; when she thought about it the only thing she really knew about his family was what he told her about his little sister.

Not wanting to admit to it, but she did some background research of her own after discovering that all the superhuman criminals have the common denomination of a Sphinx. There wasn't much she did find out; any information from the media was completely useless; almost like anything relating to the incidents were never even added. But what she did find out was that every product that came from Sphinx Corp. had some affiliation with a Sphinx, mainly from Egypt but also with Greece and South Asia where Sphinx Corp.'s other key branches were.

Another piece of information that caught her attention was when she 'looked into' some of the sale reports, how it was able to donate money without subtracting from their account, hoping that Alex's father didn't have his hands in something criminal. "A-Alex," she tried to keep herself from sounding so nervous, coughing a few times just to clear her throat, "it feels a bit weird. That you know my family so well, but I don't even know your father's name."

The little witch just watched that warm smile on her boyfriends face, almost feeling unreal on how kind he was to her. "Sorry if I caused you any unnerving, it's just my father likes his privacy," her eyes diverting from his warming eyes to that lovely picture she still couldn't believe was of her, "but if you want to know, my dad's name is Alexander and he looked just like me when he was my age."

"So that means, your name is Alexander Jr.?" trying to confirm her thoughts.

"Actually no, my dad is Alexander Jr.," smiling while explaining, "so my official title is Alexander the Third."

Can't help but let out a little giggle after her boyfriend explained, amusing from how energetic he was stating that fact. "So will I ever get to meet my boyfriend's father?" Yet even after dating for over a month, it still felt so weird that she had a boyfriend; half expecting that during the first few days it was just another cruel joke on her part.

A smile still gracing his gentle snow white face, he shook his head. "Now that I can't be sure of, my father has been very busy lately even I haven't seen him for the last three weeks," Gwen continued to wonder how Alex was able to keep up that smile on his face, especially from guessing how lonely it would get around here at night, "it's a lot of work to run a multi-billion dollar company so well."

"Probably," giving him a short wink, "but I do hope I could meet him soon."

* * *

After getting finished with their homework with the sun just setting in the sky, reminding the young blue-haired teen of that day nearing the season known as summer's end. It was just Ben and her relaxing on top of that hill watching the sky become that unusual but delightful mixture of colors; one of her most cherished memories on this new planet, quietly squeezing on the golden picture case she kept in her pocket. A bit shocked that the element it was made out of was so valuable here since it was fairly common on her planet.

But tonight she wasn't in the bathing clothes Gwen lent her, she was wearing over her house clothes what she believed was called an apron; supposedly designed to prevent any harm or stains that could be caused from cooking to get on ones body. This making her wonder once again what the need was to wear clothes inside and not just wear the apron over her bare body when preparing food, once again this being one of those earthling customs that was abnormal to her.

However, once she looked at Ben there was another thing that was unusual before her scarlet eyes. Where he would always have trouble with school related work she watched as he looked to know what he was doing in this room of the house. Glancing at the large book in front of him every now and again he would instantly go to the cabinet and grab the items that were necessary, making her realize now how Ben was good in the Lab portion of Biology and not the class itself. 

It was interesting to see how confident Ben was in this task, wishing he would show at least half of this confidence when he was working on his school work, knowing he was capable of doing well if he did. "What are we going to... make?" Rubbing her hand softly against her throat, feeling her face and neck slowly turning back to the stone-like stiffness; believing that within two or three days her body will be back before that procedure.

"Nothing too hard," giving the alien a kind smile when he spoke, getting a small but warm feeling when he did, "just Make-it-Yourself homemade hamburgers."

She watched from a short distance the brown-haired boy removed the strange meat from the plastic wrapping before balling a minor portion of it between his hands. "Come try it out Ren," he offered, holding out the juice soaked ball of meat before her.

Ren solid scarlet eyes observed the fist size ball of meat. This would be the first time she would be handling food in the preparing stage; hoping she could do a good job with this new experience she will learn on Earth.

After she put out her hands he softly placed the meat between them. It was a strange feeling as the juices instantly soaked her snow white hands while the softness tingled her grip. However, unlike how Ben was able to keep it in the sphere form it just fell apart to her touch; desperately trying to keep it from falling apart. If it wasn't for Ben's help in catching the food, it would have just fallen to the floor.

"I'm sorry," the apology slipped from her lips; her body's reactions different from how they would normally react; cooking being a little harder than she realized.

But he just gave her a calming smiling, looking into his eyes the small horned Bucerusian could tell everything was all right. "Don't worry about it; it took me awhile to get it right too." He explained before placing the meat back in her soft tender hands, both soaked in the juices yet neither seemed to mind. "Just keep compressing it while moving it around like this, you'll get the hang of it soon enough."

* * *

However, even after Ben's kind words the teenage alien didn't seem to progress much: she nearly burned her hand on the pot by grabbing the metal part of the handle; spilled some of the ingredients, mistaken the alarm used to detect smoke as the timer and many other things. She never would have guessed just making even a simple meal would be this complex.

The young girl in the end worked at setting the table, washing the vegetables and peeling the lettuce, a little depressed this seemed to be the only thing she could do to help in this situation; feeling like how bad she was at this cooking she might defy the laws of physics and possibly set the water ablaze.

It was a weird feeling to have; so far she didn't have a problem with many of the earthling ways yet with this cooking she felt a little helpless. Moving her eyes over she watched as Ben seemed to have everything else under controlled; slightly a bit envious of how easy this was to him and wishing she could at least help some more then peel the lettuce under the rushing cold water.

"This does seem a little weird," Ben's restful voice broke the silence between them, never losing focus on the meat which was sizzling in the metal cookware, "it reminds me the first time my mom made me cook with her, except this time nothing exploded."

Ren couldn't help from giggling after he stated that, making her feel slightly relieved that it wasn't as simple as he made it appear. "But my mom kept me at it, stating that one day it would be a very useful skill for whenever I got a girlfriend. This being during the age of when I thought girls were yucky so I was never really into it at the beginning, but that didn't stop my mom from making me help her."

She let out another small giggle from her story and her body relaxed comfortably without her realizing it. It was a nice feeling she got from hearing a kind memory of her potential partner's past. The young alien only wished that she could share some found memories of her past as well, but no matter how hard she thought nothing would come to mind; the only thing that would come close to a good memory on that planet was when she first discovered her Omnitrix; quietly weeping at the small size of her horns.

Yet, now that she thought about her small horns, this being the first time she thought about that particular subject since the beginning of the school term. If her horns were not the size that they are, would she have had the caring experience of meeting such a kind family like the Tennysons or even met this young thoughtful teenager before that brought her body such warmth just from standing by him. Were her horns as much as a burden as she originally believed?

Watching the brown-hair teen place the finish burgers from the cooking dish on the plate next to him, with that smile still bestowed on his face, declared. "Well, let us enjoy the fruits of our labor."

Tilting her head slightly to the left from his comment; befuddled by another unusual earthling saying. The young alien knew that this type of provision was of the meat category so how did it become a fruit? "Another figure of speech Ren," the earthling language known as English was a very confusing language, making her wonder why earthlings just didn't say what they wanted to say, "it just means that... ah, huh what does that saying mean? I better ask Gwen tomorrow."

A reaction known as a giggle to the earthlings slipped out of her mouth, reminding her of when she first met Ben and how he reacted around his cousin. Back then when they were on GEA they were always at ends with each other; but now, without any hints of annoyance in his voice, he was willing, of his own free will, to ask her for help. Making the blue-haired alien wonder when her potential partner became so mature from the hyperactive stubborn teen she first met. Not that it made the slightest difference to her, since Ben is and always will be Ben.

* * *

"Gwen!" the young teen in white called out with only pure excitement in his usual calm voice, calling her over to the computer station he sat at; his ocean blue eyes still focused on the screen before him. "I think I just made a major breakthrough."

Dropping what she was doing, the witch dashed over to where her boyfriend sat; quickly gazing over the charts and formulas that were on the screen, wanting to hear everything he was able to find out. "What did you find out?"

He noticed the first thing from his girlfriend's quick reaction was the excitement in her tone; he wouldn't blame her as they have been working on this project of theirs for sometime now and what he just found out he knew it would bring a lovely smile to her beautiful face. "Well you really need to thank your mom and dad for keeping such clear notes, even though the technology they used back then is crude to today's technology it helped a lot; especially his focus on how certain elements increased certain powers your mother used."

Her sea foam green eyes unconsciously looked over at the small stack of paperwork that was in a pile right by the computer. Her mother let her borrow the information that was useful, only wondering how Alex would react to seeing all of the files that she saw in their attic. "Glad to hear that researched helped, but what did you find out?"

The snow white skin teen gave her such a kind smile before he started his explanation, this giving her the warm feeling that all he had to state was good news. "Well first of all I can state with absolute certainty that your gift has nothing to do with anything dealing with religion; nothing to do with Satan, God, or anything else regarding the supernatural."

That was good news to the young teen, releasing a deep breath she felt like she has been holding onto since they started this research. Even though she always knew that there was no way that could have been attached to her ability the thought still floated through her mind; relieved it was finally gone. "So what did you find out?"

Pointing to one of the charts that were on the screen, he clearly explained. "Remember when we discovered that unusual coat of energy from the first day we started this project," watching as she nodded to the question before clicking over to a different page, "well I was right to a degree, if you look at the energy when you use your gift its looks like your drawing some kind of energy from the elements around you. So in theory your gift is that of a natural evolution from the radiation that comes from the planet itself; which in turn also explains why you would gain power for certain spells when around certain elements."

Her eyes deep in thought while she gently caressed her chin: thinking over how she felt when using her abilities and the research she was reading off his screen. No matter what she thought the theory itself made perfect sense. "Now after filtering out the fact from fiction through what I could find on your gift combined with this knowledge we have now, the use of your 'Magic Words' is more of a way to focus your powers. The words themselves don't have to have any real meaning, so with enough practice you might be able to use those Spells from just thought alone. Yet remember this is still in a theory stage and only time will tell."

"It might just be in the theory stage but it is still amazing how much we have progressed over this short time," Gwen couldn't help but hug her boyfriend tightly from all the excitement, yet quickly backed away with a flustered face, "I-I mean, with this alone we might be able to finally open the eyes to the religious nuts out there that this power has nothing to do with the dark arts."

His face a bit flustered as well from her out of the blue hug; it was a nice change to see her so happy to see all these tests are finally paying off. The white haired teen was also hoping with this information the wool from some peoples eyes will finally be removed so people with the same gifts as Gwen would be free to be who they are.

"Well," the orange-haired teen broke the silence, feeling an energetic smile across her lips she just couldn't get away, "if you were able to get this much with this technology, let's see what else we can find out."

Alex just couldn't help but chuckle to all the energy his girlfriend bestowed before him; smiling in return. "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

Behind the only light within that dark office of the CEO late that night, the man couldn't stop laughing as he looked over the breakthrough from his house's mainframe. So much data on the little witch it made him only realize how his own theories on her were accurate to the T. "With this information my son has gathered has definitely given what I have planned level footing; but if they can find the source, that part of my plan will be complete."

His ice cold sadistic smile shown clearly from the blue light off his screen, still looking over all the data that was in the files; thinking of ways he could push their research in the right direction. Earlier wanting to get his son away from her all together with how close they were becoming; believing his growing feelings for her might have caused more harm then good. However, it looks like that bond of trust they share has only increased the processes.

Yet he wondered if Gwen thought she could get away with her two-bit hacking abilities; Sphinx Corp. didn't get to be the success it is with a flimsy firewall with all the rival companies he had to deal with. Pharaoh could only let out a small chuckle as his cold ocean blue eyes looked upon her picture. "Don't get too cocky Gwendolyn, if it wasn't that you're such a valuable test subject you would have succumb to a heart attack the moment you accessed my company's files. Amazing how such a harmless shock from feedback on your Thoth can cause a heart to stop, no matter how healthy and strong your body is."

Exiting out of those files where he quickly clicked on a record containing the media records his company controlled; able to quickly read paragraphs with only a simple glance; his attention only focuses on what had to do with those alien heroes. "Well Benjamin; it looks like I have let you play hero long enough. I think it's finally time to show how quickly the views of the public can change on you, not to mention let my company's guest out for a little fun. I bet all the time he has been cooped up in here has driven him, a bit mad."

To Be Continued

What could Pharaoh's plan be this time, will Alex and Gwen be able to figure out what exactly gives her her ability, and will the Tennysons be able to figure out what Pharaoh is up to before it's too late? Read and review is the only way to find out.


	13. Just one unlucky day

Chapter 13: Just one unlucky day

The week went by way too fast for Ben and Ren, feeling like only one day went by but in reality it was four; now about to say their goodbyes as she was about to head off with the rest of the Academic Team on their cross-state competition; next to the bus right after school.

Within those four days the scarlet eyed teen was glad that her cooking skills have gotten a little better; knowledgeable to help some more, but always seemed to make the food itself taste not so eatable. Yet Ben would always struggle to eat what ever she made, then give her that big smile of his, extend his thumb out of his fist, and tell her it was great. She could easily tell he was lying; though she knew it, it still made her feel warm inside when he told her that; the ways of the earthlings were even now befuddling to this alien girl, but she doesn't mind as much as before.

Without that unexplainable wall that once was between them, everything they did seemed to take place smoother and simpler. It didn't seem right that, with everything so pleasant and tranquil as it is now, that she had to leave for the next ten days. This would be the first time, since coming to this picturesque planet that she would be separated from the Tennysons. Already getting the feeling known as home-sickness that was supposedly common to earthlings; a feeling that was quite rare on her home planet.

"Alright now," the cheery voice of Ben's mother seemed to quickly change the atmosphere around them, along with Gwen's mother right by her side with a new camera focused on the two, "get nice and close, I just need to get a picture of my darling son with my soon to be lovely daughter-in-law."

Ren watched how quickly the blood rushed to the face of her potential mate, along with feeling the sudden warmth reach her face as well. The feeling of embarrassment was a strange one indeed; making one feel unusual yet warm at the same time.

"So come on you two," Gwen's mother checking to make the flash was working; with the dreary clouds that covered the sky she wanted to be safe rather than sorry, "get close together with a nice smile on your faces."

Gwen, on the sidelines with Alex, her father and her uncle; the relatives knowing once the mother's got together like this there was just no way to stop them. "Is your mother and Aunt always filled with so much energy?" Alex asked, Gwen easily able to pick up his light chuckling he was trying to suppress. That was nothing compared to the reaction of the people that were passing by the little show.

"They are actually controlling themselves," the orange haired teen couldn't help but feeling her face heating up, remembering her and Ben's conjoined 14th birthday party, or any other party for that fact.

After the bright flash capturing the image of the two teens, Gwen's mother showed her sister-in-law the image she just took in the menu of her camera; letting out another delighted high-pitched squeal. "Oh they just look so adorable together. Which reminds me," stating before walking over to the two red-faced teens, "I remember you telling me that the phone segment of your Thoths weren't working, so I got you two these cell phones."

Presenting one green one for Ben, and a red one for Ren; the brown-haired teen couldn't help but be thrilled where Ren didn't show any emotion towards the gift. All she could do was say, "Thank you."

"I even already have some numbers programmed into them, check them out," Ben's mom added with Ren flipping open her cell phone to see the contacts labeled: **Future father-in-law, future mother-in-law **and** future husband.**

Ben quickly looked over at Ren's after seeing his with the contact labels: **father, loving mother, **and **future adorable wife.** "Mother!"

"Oh and watch this," Ben's aunt said, pressing a button on her camera where a few seconds later, the teens with the cell phones got a message. They opened it up the message to see the picture she just took on their screen, "now you can use those pictures as your phone's backgrounds."

The alien hero could only rub his aching forehead, dealing with his mom's antics was difficult enough but when his aunt joined in there was nothing he could do to stop it. However, when he looked at Ren, even with her face baring no emotions he focused on her gentle scarlet eyes; and with all that was going on she looked, happy. He always saw her so beautiful when she was happy; now feeling his face getting warmer for another reason.

"You know what," Ben's mom stated to her sister-in-law, "we don't have a single picture of these wonderful teens together."

"You know you're right," the orange-haired spellcaster called out to the other two standing next to their husbands, "Gwen, Alex, come over her and lets get a good photo of the four of you."

Waving his hand defensively, Alex replied. "Oh I wouldn't want to intrude."

"Nonsense," Ben's mom must have had inhuman speed, already by Alex's and Gwen's side while dragging them over, "so you stand by my lovely niece while Ben stands by my future adorable daughter-in-law."

Rather then try to fight a losing battle, the four stood side by side, and even before Gwen's mother set up the shot, Ben and Gwen where trying to put bunny ears on each other; something they would do in every picture they had together. Ren watched this in the corner of her eye; the relationship between earthling cousins was very unusual indeed.

"All right, smile on the count of three. One… Two… Three," with everyone besides Ren smiling, the bright flash came and gone; and once again Ben's mother giving another delighted squeal when she looked at the picture.

"Oh I need to get a few copies of these."

"All right, five more minutes till the bus leaves!" The supervising teacher Ms. Moot announced, with the bus quickly being filled with the other teammates.

"Ok, now let's give them sometime alone now," Gwen's mother whispered, having a hard time pulling off the mother of the alien hero.

Then with Alex and Gwen leaving without a word, Ben looked towards the blue haired girl; even with that emotionless snow white face he could tell she was a bit nervous about all of this. And who wouldn't; even though he would never admit to it, when he left for baseball summer camp at eight years old it took a week just to get the butterflies out of his stomach. "I can't wait to hear how you kicked the butt of all those other schools," giving her that dumbfounded smile of his.

The unusual feeling in her stomach settled down when he gave her that smile of his. That dumbfounded smile of his always gave her the feeling like she could do anything reasonably possible. "I will do… my best."

"And call me anytime you want," he said barely above a whisper, rubbing the back of his head and a deep red clearly shown on his face; even though they were dating and spent all this time together, he just couldn't help but feel nervous when he talked to her like this, "especially anytime you feel… homesick."

Slowly, she wrapped her arms around the hyperactive teen; making sure not to accidentally hurt him like she has embarrassedly done a few times already; her frail complexion being a bit deceiving at times towards her strength. "I… will."

But a bright flash broke the mood; with the two teens letting each other go to see it wasn't Gwen's mother, but his this time. "Awe, why did you two stop?"

"Well," rubbing the back of his head once again, but the other hand giving her the strange jester of the fist with the thumb extending, "see you in ten days, and go kick butt."

It was a strange jester, but she tried it out as well; extending her fragile looking hand out, forming it into a fist, and extending her thumb. "I will go… kick butt."

* * *

In a dark alley somewhere in the city of Bellwood, the yipping of an annoying little mutt woke up the alien tyrant; using his newly formed massive arms to get himself on his feet. A bit wobbly at first, just coming out of a drug induce sleep; and that mangy earth pet he mistaken for a rat's barking was only causing him a pounding headache.

So with putting one through the uprights, that little problem was solved; and with that headache quickly disappearing, he remembered the last thing he heard before being knocked out.

"All you have to do is find me, is your ego strong enough to accomplish that simple task?"

That shrill voice of Pharaoh was enough to bring his rage beyond reason, wanting nothing more then to shred that earthling filth to piece for every crossing paths with this warlord. "PHARAOH!"

* * *

At Alex's lab, still doing research on that theory the teen in white had; examining with a powerful microscope as close to the atomic structure as it could go; even in this day and age science has only come so far.

With his theory she was practically a hacker for the real world, rearranging at an atomic structure could make objects look as they appeared out of nowhere, cause chemical reactions, and if his theory was correct, rearrange the chronotrons so she could travel through time. The theory itself alone made the orange-haired teen want to keep trying and practicing with her powers.

"Well so far I still can't find any confirmative proof of the theory," using his index finger and thumb to rub his eyes, getting a bit exhausted from looking at the screen for so long, "but technology has only come so far."

"Well we can take a break for now," Gwen's voice echoed through the speakers from the dome, "once we relax a bit we can try it out again."

"Good idea, Gwen," Alex replied, "nothing better then a fresh pair of eyes."

However, once she got back up from the dome, the earth shook furiously with Gwen losing her balance and falling on the metal floor. "Gwen!" her boyfriend called out in shock, rushing to her aid, "are you all right?"

Shaking her head a few times to regain consciousness; slowly opening her sea green eyes to look into his worried pure ocean blue. "Yeah I'm all right, what just happened?"

"I don't know, doubt it was an earth quake though," once helping Gwen to her feet, he accessed the television through his computer, revealing a breaking news report in the middle of the city.

"We don't know what is going on, just reports that a strange giant squid-face like creature is randomly attacking the City of Bellwood," the news reporter in the helicopter announced with only a cloud of smoke visible behind her, "we believe this to be somehow connected to the recent alien sightings, yet we do apologize we can't get a closer pic…"

However, they could not see that airborne pick-up truck flying towards their copter; where before it collided, the Technical Difficulty sign appeared on the screen. "This can't be good," Alex stated the obvious, "this looks too dangerous for Lucky Girl."

Yet after looking away from his computer, he saw his girlfriend with a smirk on her face along with that mask. "Well, if I know my bonehead of a cousin, he is going to need someone to save his butt."

Alex couldn't help but let a chuckle escape. "I'm guessing no matter how much I warn you of the dangers it won't do any good."

"You know me too well," still bearing that smirk of hers he just couldn't get enough of on her beautiful face.

"Well if there is nothing I can do to stop you, I think this will help," walking over to the locked cabinet across the room, "I was going to have you train with them after I had a chance to analyze them, they are supposed to help people with your gift."

Unlocking the cabinet, he presented his girlfriend with a belt; encrusted into it were five stone circles with unusual patterns on each one. "They are referred to as, the Charms of Bezel. Hopefully they will be of some help."

Accepting her boyfriend's gift, she attached the belt around her waist, fitting perfectly with even her cat logo right on the front. "Well, only one way to test them out."

* * *

Using XLR8 to rush to the scene, Ben could barely believe the sight he saw before him. It wasn't anything like the freaks he had been taking on before, but an alien. Standing at least fifteen feet tall and muscles on his muscles; this was definitely not going to be as easy as his previous battles in this city, with the streets torn up and the buildings in ruins around him, the alien in question looking to be in a complete blind rage.

"What the heck are you doing to my town?" The lizard alien yelled to the not so jolly green giant.

Its blood lusting eyes looked directly at Ben; even though he knew that this alien could only be the Omnitrix wearing Tennyson; but at the moment he was too blinded by his rage towards Pharaoh to care. "Unless you know where Pharaoh is, your life is pointless to me!" he roared.

Wondering what the Cthulhu-like alien was talking about, he called back. "What the heck are you talking about; who's Pharaoh?"

Ben thought he was at a disadvantage before, the matched looked to be completely one sided as the alien arm's grew to the size of school buses. "Then I'll destroy you and this city till I get my revenge on Pharaoh for treating me, the warlord Vilgax, like some worthless human!"

Even with his speed, Ben was barely able to dodge the swing of the alien's massive arm; he tried to launch a counter-attack; launching himself at his chest and kicking rapidly; but useless as Vilgax's muscles made his body harder then steel.

Grabbing at XLR8's leg, the warlord hurled the lizard clear across the city. Before colliding with the buildings, Ben changed into Fourarms but still shot straight through without losing momentum; making a crater into the ground when he landed. "That's going to leave a mark."

Climbing out of the hole, he could feel the earth shaking for each step the behemoth took, getting louder and louder the closer he got, till he felt himself being pulled straight out of the hole. "I will order you again you weak scum," the rage induced Vilgax ordered, "tell me where Pharaoh is and your death with be swift!"

"I told you already, I don't know who Pharaoh is!" the red alien shouted back, trying to use all four arms to get out of Vilgax's vice grip.

But the deranged alien had other ideas and threw the alien hero, tearing up the streets as he dug all four of his hands into the ground to slow himself down.

"Where are you Pharaoh? Show yourself you worthless coward!" Vilgax shouted, picking up a small car with only one arm, throwing it across the street into another building. The only thing covering up the sounds of destruction were the screams of the people running for their lives. "I would destroy this entire planet but I rather have the self satisfaction of killing you with my bare hands!"

Changing into Diamondhead, Ben reformed his arms into giant spikes. Running towards Vilgax at full force and thrusting them repeatedly at his chest, only to realize once he pulled away his hands were completely shattered. "Ah crud."

Once again being batted away like a fly to the alien behemoth, but this time Vilgax charged right at him. About to slam his enhanced fist right through the diamond like glass, Ben turned into Ghostfreak just in time. "If you are going to stand in my way I will just have to destroy you before I rip Pharaoh limb from limb!"

"Dude, who the heck is this Pharaoh?" Ben's dark raspy alien voice asked, getting just out of reach of Vilgax's arm length.

"I don't have to answer moronic questions, since I will destroy you and this miserable city anyway!" the rage crazed warlord roared, making another angry charge at the teen hero.

Quickly changing into Upgrade, the nanotech alien combined with the semi-truck nearby; forming into a robot that resembled one of the teen's favorite transformer. "Take this!" Forming six rockets on his shoulders and launching them directly at Vilgax, each making a direct hit.

But that still didn't slow down the warlord, once again charging at Ben with only pure vengeance on his mind; punching a hole right through Ben's stomach.

Reforming himself off of the semi, he changed himself into Stinkfly, getting himself out of range while simultaneously shooting out the sticky goop from his eye sockets; hoping this will do something as he is running low on aliens to fight this guy with.

Yet even though the goop was strong, the enhanced Vilgax was still stronger; breaking free only seconds later. There just seemed to be nothing that could stop this tyrant.

That was until, a large beam of purple of energy launched Vilgax down the boulevard; and Ben looking up to see Lucky Girl standing on top of a pile of rubble. "Sad to see I really needed to help the 'all mighty hero' out of this mess!"

What a time she had to hit his ego; that was his pain of a neck of a cousin all right. "Hey, I softened him up for ya!" yelled the giant four eyed insect.

But that didn't seem to slow down the warmonger in the least, getting back up on his feet as quickly as he was knocked down. "Unless you know where Pharaoh is your lives have no value at all!"

"What the heck is he talking about?" Gwen befuddled from her late entry.

"Like I know, he has been yelling that out since we started."

Will little effort, Vilgax ripped up a large piece of the rubble street, tossing it right at the distracted witch.

But with Ben's quick thinking, changed himself into Cannonbolt and got his cousin out of the way just in time; dropping her off where he quickly ricocheted off the nearby buildings, slamming the enhanced Vilgax with full force. This time it was the enemy that shot through the building.

However, once again that seemed to do little to slow down the massive creature ahead of them. "Oh come on, can't anything stop this guy?"

* * *

Unaware to the Tennyson cousins, the icy grin of Pharaoh crept up his lips while watching this battle in countless angles; resting his chin on his interlocked hands. "How do you like it?" looking as he was speaking to no one in the room, "if this is what my Super Soldiers project can do to an alien, think of what it can do for your armies."

On separate screens, twelve other men and two women were listing in; getting a clear view of the chaos in Bellwood with the help of Sphinx Corp.'s satellites. "With only one you are able to take down that Alien menace with hardly any effort, I must say Pharaoh you have once again outdone yourself."

"And he is practically invincible, with this bio-enhancement those worthless Resistance will have no choice but to bow down to my dictatorship. I want this done to my soldiers as soon as possible Pharaoh."

But one of the elderly women had something else plaguing her thoughts while she watched this fight; something she couldn't help but ask the great Pharaoh. "I do have to admit, this enhancement is very impressive, but what is to stop such a powerhouse if it was to stray too far from its leash? My dogs need to know who their master is."

A quick, but dark chuckle slipped the CEO's lips. "Please, save all of your questions till the end of the show, I'm sure it will answer all of your questions with a bang."

* * *

Even with the two cousins and all of their might, this alien was far superior in strength. The alien hero wishing that Ren was here to help where at the same time he was glad she left when she did. If this lunatic was to harm her in anyway… he didn't know if he could control himself afterwards.

Changing into Wildvyne, he was starting to wonder if this was a match he could win; even after throwing those bomb pods that grew on his back, it barely slowed down the giant creature.

While Gwen, remembered what Alex told her about these charms before she headed off to fight.

* * *

"This is the only charm I have focused on so far, it supposedly gives people with your gift a stronger ability at probability manipulation," he explained while pointing at the charm to the left of her belt buckle.

"Probability manipulation, you mean it gives me luck?" the orange hair girl question, adjusting the belt to make sure it fitted perfectly around her waist. It would be a bad outcome if it slipped off her in the heat of battle.

"Correct," Alex answered, "there is a theory that because the world is made up of atoms, if one day we can read the atoms clearly we can tell what is going to happen next. So what this charm does is increase your ability at manipulating the atoms around you to give you a better outcome. I was going to have you test this one out tomorrow so I can't tell you how it works or what it does exactly."

Rubbing her hand over the charm in question, giving him that proud smirk on her face. "Well, let's just hope it does give me the luck I need."

* * *

Crossing her fingers and hoping for the best, but nothing seemed to happen. So out of frustration, unaware that the charm was glowing, she kicked a small pebble; which interned hit against an already damaged fire hydrant, launching it into the air from the thrust of water.

The falling hydrant landing directly onto the street only a few inches in front of Vilgax, hitting a one in a million chance weak spot of the swear system; cracks creeping all over the streets where the alien fell straight into the hole. "Huh, so that's what probability manipulation is," smirking, "I could get use to this belt of mine."

But the cracks continued to spread, destroying the asphalt in front of the rolling hero; causing him to lose his balance and being launch into the air; stopping only when he collided face first into a stone wall. "Whose side," he struggled to groan at his witch of a cousin, letting his yellow shelled back break his fall, "are you on?"

Yet even with all they threw at this monster, Vilgax just kept on coming; jumping out of the hole with barely more then some scratches.

Changing into Heatblast, knowing if this alien didn't pack the firepower to stop this enraged behemoth… nothing will. "Time to bring on the heat!"

"Where are you, PHARAOH?!" Vilgax charged at the teen heroes; completely blinded by his rage and raging blood lust it looked like nothing would stop him from his path of destruction.

Even though she trained for the past few weeks with her powers; there was still a limit she was able to. Trying with all her might through the use of her magic to stop the bulldozer of an alien she could barely slow him down.

Where Ben put both of his hands together, charging up the biggest fireball he had ever formed; knowing against this alien, holding back could blow the only chance they had. "Hey dufus!" his know-it-all cousin shouted, her body struggling to keep the spell from faltering with all her might, "if your going to do something make it quick, I can't hold on much longer!"

He only had one shot, taking it as he launched the massive fireball directly at the enraged alien, making direct contact. At first it looked to barely even make Vilgax wince; that was until both of the cousins were blown away by an explosion, the shockwave shattering ever window in the vicinity yet to have been broken by the brawl, leaving a giant crater where the enemy use to be.

"What the heck did you do, Ben?" Gwen yelled at her alien cousin, trying to regain her footing from the trembling in her legs.

* * *

Pharaoh removed his finger from the red button by his desk, the light of the screens only revealed the icy grin that never seemed to leave his lips. "I hope that answered your question about the leash on your dogs, Miss. Eleven."

"You were right, Pharaoh, that did answer my question with a bang. But could you lessen the destruction radius? I don't want my entire army wiped out because of one stray dog."

"No problem, he was only the prototype to show the potential of the Super Soldiers; the process done to all of yours will have the bomb planted directly in the brain, along with a shocker just incase they only disobey orders and need to be taught a lesson."

"So when can we expect the procedure on our soldiers?" Number Seven asked.

"All you need to do is transfer the deposit and I will have my scientist sent over to perform the treatment immediately."

"Once again, Pharaoh, I'm glad to do business with you and your company," Number Three replied.

"Well then hope to do more in the future," Pharaoh answered just before logging off from his private customers, making another perfect business deal that will soon be used for his own benefit, "so interesting indeed, now that Vilgax was destroyed that will lead no evidence that he ever came from my company. But now, they know someone is watching them; this will now start get very interesting."

To Be Continued

Finally I finished this chapter. Yes I won't have Ren appear on the final chapters since I am trying to have this fanfic end where the live action movie begins, so blame them for not adding her.

Anyway by the end of the next chapter Pharaoh will be revealed; with how I am planning this fanfic I only have two more chapters left to write. Read and review.


	14. Who is Pharaoh?

Chapter 14: Who is Pharaoh?

Even by the next day, the incident that happened in the middle of downtown was being broadcasted on every channel throughout the country and even to some other countries.

Ben, along with his family, watched the coverage on the channel four new. With how downtown was practically in rubble there was no classes today in the city of Bellwood; giving this brown-haired teen the only good news so far.

Ben's father turned up the volume when the news anchor focused on the reporter that was on the site. "Well it has been a little over twelve hours since the battle between the hero aliens and what ever that behemoth was the city is almost cleaned up thanks from the extra help Sphinx Corp. has offered. In fact, the CEO's Assistant, Miss. Neith, is about to make a speech on behalf of the CEO," uneasily pausing for a few seconds before whispering, "Jim, focus over there."

Once the camera moved then focused on the podium in the middle of the cleared wreckage, where Neith was just making her way up to it; coughing twice softly to clear her throat. "On behalf of Sphinx Corp., I would like to say we are glad to help in anyway we can to get this city back in running order and to thank the Alien Heroes in doing all they could to bring down that tyrant before anyone was seriously hurt."

The alien team-in-one held back his urge to cheer, almost forgetting that his parents were sitting on the couch behind him; instead just found a more comfortable position on the carpet with a large smirk on his face.

"However, the brutality used defeat the tyrant was deemed too extreme; and even though they are aliens they are still on the planet earth and should uphold the laws of our planet. We do wish that the Alien Heroes that participated in the death of the being would come forth willingly to turn themselves in; if so we have been informed by the police that they will receive a very minimal punishment."

"What?!" Ben shouted with too much energy, slamming his fist on the ground, "I… I mean they save all of our lives and they are being punished for it?"

"Well son, the law is the law," his father's voice spoke to his, what he believed, irrational son. Knowing his son took pride in those aliens so he believed that's why Ben was so emotionally involved.

"Also because of the damage, students from Franklin High School will be transferred to Bellwood High for at least the next week," Ben couldn't help but let out another groan, why did it have to be that school. That means he will have to deal with J.T. and Cash for a whole week; wondering if anything else could go wrong.

But before she could explain anything else, the hyper teen's cell phone rang the song he hated more then any other on his phone; so obviously it was Gwen calling him; walking out of the room before answering. "What did you find out, Gwen?"

"Just head over here, I can explain better at my house."

* * *

However, within Sphinx Corp. the mysterious CEO laid his cold blue eyes upon the cylinder tube; looking at remains of the once great Vilgax. "My my, I am quite surprised that you are still alive after an explosion like that; your species is quite strong I will give you that."

All that was left of the universes most known warlord was what looked to be his insides, one and a half arms and something that could be described as his leg. Even in this state Vilgax's claw tightened to the sound of Pharaoh's voice. "Well I doubt you will live much longer without my kind devotion and company's technology. Who knows, maybe in ten or twenty years someone will devise the technology to reconstruct your body; but for now you could still be of some use in that condition."

That icy smirk still on his face, he headed back to his office; muttering to himself. "But why did you have to shout my name out like that; it took a lot of string pulling to keep that out of the media," letting a dark chuckle slip from his lips, "oh well, it won't be long now before the Heroes barge through my door. With all the money I'm putting into fixing up this city that would just be very annoying."

Turning on his Thoth, he contacted his loyal assistant. "Could you please set up an appointment with the Tennyson cousins, it looks like I will have to speed up this part of my plan, and please have the remains of Vilgax sent to Dr. Animo's lab at Naxos."

"I will get right on it, Pharaoh," she replied, disconnecting the line.

Letting out another dark chuckle when another thought passed through his mind. "Well, soon I will have a nice chat with them; hopefully this will clear everything up."

* * *

A short bike ride and five minutes later, Ben made his way inside the house and up the stairs to Gwen's room, a bit shocked no one else was there. "Where are your parents?"

"They're at work," his witch of a cousin replied, her eyes still focused on that screen since he walked in, "with all that's happened they are putting in some major overtime. Now come over and see what I found."

Walking in and sitting on her bed, he was glad that his cousin was a tomboy; he doubted he could have walked into a room if it was filled with stuffed animals and pink walls. "So who is Pharaoh?"

"Well I still don't know who, but I'm also guessing you don't know what a Pharaoh is," she looked over at her dimwit cousin, even at such a serious time he couldn't help but give her that 'innocent' smile. Rubbing her head as she could already feel the pain grow, "all right the short version of it, Pharaoh isn't a name but a title. During the ancient Egyptian times a Pharaoh was seen as the king or queen of Egypt, even seen sometimes as a god to the people. So from that information alone I can only come to the conclusion that whoever is using the title of Pharaoh must be…"

"The CEO to Sphinx Corp." her cousin beat her to the punch, a bit shocked that he was able to put those two together. Obviously a five year old could have done it so it was a great achievement for Ben, "man I knew the guy who focused so much on Egypt must had been twisted."

Remembering the little outburst he had back at The Lost Kingdom, wondering if Ben could only remember things that really annoyed him. "I also did some little digging by using that name, discovering that many major war weapons have been sold all over the world with the only connection being that name; it being completely separate funding from Sphinx Corp. so that's why I couldn't find anything earlier."

"This guy is sounding more like a nut job the more you explain," Quickly remembering about the strange characters he took on not to long ago, "but now that you say that, those freaks seemed to come out of nowhere after Sphinx Corp., set up shop, could we blame them on Pharaoh?"

"Well I couldn't find any proof but with what I found out I do believe he or she could be behind it," trying to hide that she knew Alex's father was the one they were talking about; wondering how she would tell her boyfriend all of what has been happening was his father's doing, "but what I can't figure out is why Pharaoh set up right here in Bellwood."

"Isn't it obvious," Ben stated in a boastful tone, "He came here to take out the only one who could stop him, namely me."

"Nah that can't be it," she replied without a moment's hesitation, a smirk couldn't help but grace her lips as she could see her idiot cousin's reaction from the corner of her eye, "I doubt he set up the head office of his company in our town for the sole act of taking you out; Pharaoh must be a genius though, he has covered his tracts so well this is all that I could find through my hacking skills."

The orange-haired teen's attention was diverted from her screen by that all too familiar sound; looking over at her bed to see her cousin playing with the dial of his watch. "Well how about we bust into Sphinx Corp. and ask the mysterious CEO face-to-face?"

The pain growing in her forehead, why couldn't her cousin ever think things through before jumping to using that Omnitrix like an answer to all problems tool. "Ben, can you ever think for once!?"

"What's wrong now?" hating when his cousin would yell at him without giving a reason first.

"Duh dufus, you already have the police looking out for any one of your alien forms, by taking on a multi-billion company like that you're going to be put on the most wanted list for the CIA, FBI, and all of the others; not to mention put many innocent civilians in danger that work there," she explained… well more liked yelled at her cousin, "seriously Ben you're fourteen, think before you speak."

Rolling his eyes as he fell back on the bed; he spoke up, unable to hide his annoyed attitude. "Well if you're so smart, what do you have planned?"

However, before she could think of an answer, both her Thoth and his cell phone told them they had a message. Opening it up to read the following: **Dear Ben/Gwen, you are personally invited tomorrow at 4 p.m. for a meeting with the CEO of Sphinx Corp. Please inform your cousin of this meeting and my boss hopes to clear up any misunderstandings you might have. Wish you well, Miss. Neith.**

"Heh, well I guess I found my answer," letting a nervous laugh slip, never expecting that Pharaoh would try to make contact as casually as this; wondering if this could all just be a trap.

"This guy is a nut job," Ben exclaimed, "doesn't he know that I will just kick his butt once I finally see his face."

The sea-foam green eyed girl let out a groan, her cousin still didn't think before speaking; now knowing that her preaching has been falling on deaf ears.

* * *

Within a barely lit room, Alex stood before his father; both hidden by the shadows. "What is wrong, Alex; you look like you are troubled."

His father's eyes far surpassed his, even in this darken room he was able to see the storm of thoughts plaguing his mind. "I wish I could tell you father, but I don't seem to know myself."

"Oh? Please explain."

Thinking of the best way to explain what was going on in his mind, so many of his memories just didn't seem to add up like they did so smoothly before. "I don't know why, but I remember the students from the last school I went to tried to be my friend mainly because I was rich, but when I think about it I can't recall any of the students' names."

"That is not a problem," his father answered calmly, "the memory is a very fickle thing; in some cases it is known that people will block out painful memories."

"T-That's not all," Alex spoke up, "when I try to remember the day you and mom split up, I have two different memories of what happened."

"Huh, what do you mean two memories?"

"Well, the first memory is where I say my last goodbye to Keikei before you lead me out to the car," hesitating on the next part, wondering if something might be wrong with him, "I don't see you behind me, being dragged away from my beloved sister while all I can hear is her cries. Why would I have such a horrid thought disguised as a memory?"

"Well from what you're telling me I do think you need to miss school tomorrow; we will head over to Andro and perform a few tests to find out what exactly is going on."

This teen in white didn't like to miss school, but he knew that his father was right; he just hoped he wouldn't make Gwen worried. "T-Thanks… dad."

Waiting till he watched his son leave the room, the all mighty Pharaoh shook his head. "Well, he did last much longer then I originally planned; if he wasn't so close to that test subject I would have pulled him out a long time ago. Guess that meeting those Tennyson cousins came just at the right time after all; strange how some things just work themselves out in the end."

* * *

The next day was a very slow day; even with the usual slow classes to Ben focusing on the clock didn't make time move any faster. Not to mention when his eyes weren't focused on the clock, he looked back at the empty desk of Ren's, haven't chatted with her since two this morning. If Glen didn't stop flirting with her he swore that he was going to teach that hopeless flirt a lesson one couldn't learn in school, Fourarms' style.

Even though only one day has pasted since she left for that trip, he was already hoping that she would come back home any minute now. Although they could talk through their cell phones, it just didn't feel the same as being in the same room. But there was nothing he could do right now but hope that she was kicking those brainiac's butts.

While with Gwen, she constantly looked at the empty seat next to her. It wasn't like Alex to miss school, or to not leave her a message of some kind. There were so many questions she wanted to ask him, wanting to know anything he might have known about his father's actions.

But with this meeting she and her cousin were going to after school; she could only hope that Alex had nothing to do with what his father was up to. Shaking her head just to get rid of that negative thought; she knew her boyfriend wouldn't be mixed up in anything like arms dealing.

So as soon as that bell rung, they were both already packed up and headed out the door. With all the questions they still had these cousins weren't going to waste any time.

* * *

If it wasn't for the wanted posters for Ben's aliens he would had just turned XLR8, instead the cousins had to get through the traffic; and with downtown as it was it was a complete nightmare both on the streets and the sidewalk; barely making to the main office of Sphinx Corp. within the hour difference.

There the two stood at the top floor of the giant building; a floor that was so heavily guarded he doubted his Ghostfreak could get by; a place rarely reached by any employee, even the CEO's Assistant, where right behind that large double oak door at least thirty feet away from them, hearing the faint sound of a piano playing. Ben had no idea what the song was however Gwen instantly recognized that song as Mozart's Requiem; wondering what Pharaoh has planned for them.

"You ready Gwen?" Ben spoke to his cousin with only concern in his voice, a rare thing she heard from her dufus of a family member.

"And here I was just worried about you doing something stupid," smirking at her annoyed cousin.

Opening the large wooden doors, they noticed that the office was void of all light; with the sound of that piano playing filling up the room.

Instantly, the doors behind them closed, hearing along with that music was a cold dark voice. "I have always wondered, why in video games, does the antagonist that seems to have gentleman qualities, always plays the piano when the one seen as the hero enters? Being a video game expert Benjamin, do you know the answer?"

It was a bizarre way to start off a meeting for the Tennyson cousins, leaving Gwen to wonder if that was just asked to ease any tension that was between them. "Never gave it much thought; just went in and kicked the villains butt."

"Interesting explanation, Benjamin," the cold voice replied, never faltering in his playing as the unusual conversation continued, "I see it as a way for the one seen as the villain to send off the one seen as the hero with a nice song before the fight begins, incase they aren't able to convert the hero's way of thinking. But that's just something that I have been curious about."

"Hey dude," Ben called out, "could we put on a light, I can't see anything in front of my face."

"Why certainly, we can't clear everything up with all this darkness around us; we would probably just go in circles."

Hearing the CEO turn his chair, he must of hit a button at his desk as the room was instantly filled with a bright light; causing the two teens to cover their eyes and wait for them to adjust.

Taking a good minute or two for their eyes to finally adjust, they were a little amazed by the objects that decorated his office. Antique artifacts from all over the world, artifacts that should be inside a museum, even impressing the teen that thought a museum was nothing but a snooze.

However, both of their faces went wide with complete shock; looking directly across from them behind that white oak desk; was none other then the fourteen year old, Alexander Sovereign.

Instead of that warm smile that always graced his face with those pure ocean blue eyes, it was a sadistic grin with cold blue eyes. The teens were completely speechless, letting his dark voice break the shaken silence. "I'm glad we can finally meet, face-to-face."

To Be Continued (**Read the P.S.)**

Pharaoh is Alex, or is this all just some horrifying screw up that I added for my own amusement, what is Pharaoh's overall plan, and what will the Tennyson cousins do after hearing what he has to say. One chapter left so Read and Review.

**P.S.:** The next chapter might be considered a bit offensive to some readers when he explains his overall goal. Just remember this is fiction my loyal (and hopefully still after the next chapter) readers.


	15. Time to explain… everything

Once again, very sorry if this offenses anyone. You all know normally I really don't care if I offended people by my massive heartbreaks and complete character breakdowns, but this does hit a completely separate level.

Once again though, this is all **FICTION**. I have made all of this up for the soul purpose to use in this fanfic and have been planning to write this since before I starting this sequel; I don't agree with Pharaoh on some levels myself so don't believe just because I wrote this means I am expressing my ideals through the character. Enjoy.

Chapter 15: Time to explain… everything

The Tennysons couldn't have been more surprised at the sight before them, even if Alex was completely calm where he sat. Thousands of questions were coursing through these teen's minds, but the main one being how Alex could be the one behind all that was going on in this city.

However, to Gwen she was nearly to the brink of tears. She had spent so much time with him; laughed with him, believed in her abilities because of him, been learning more about herself because of him, and even gone out on dates with him. To her this just couldn't be her boyfriend, even though deep within her pounding heart that it was him sitting in front of her; hopping it must have been a doppelganger or some kind of trick all together.

Seemingly ignoring the fact that the cousins were frozen in their place, the teenager in white looked over at Gwen. "Ah you must be the lovely young lady my son is so head-over-heels about," breaking the silence, with a voice that seemed devoted of any emotion while those eyes were still cold as ice "he did want us to meet…"

"What the heck is going on here?!" the young orange haired witch's emotions got the best of her at the moment, using all of her might just to hold back the tears of betrayal from pouring down her cheeks. "Who are you, where is Alex?"

Although even with this emotional outburst, all the teen did was let out a dark chuckle slip from his grinning lips. "Oh my," still speaking to them in a tone lacking any emotion whatsoever, "it looks like I will have to shed a little light on my background if we are going to get anywhere with what I originally wanted to talk to you two about. So please, take a seat and let us get started; this might take some time and I doubt you will want to stand the entire time."

Their trust level at zero towards this teen in front of them; yet it looked like they had no choice to go along with his requests, for now anyway; taking the two seats on the other side of the white oak desk.

"I will start off this conversation into my existence by stating I am Alex, yet at the same time I am not. He is a personality I created completely separated from my own for the soul purpose of getting closer to your family to study your abilities; technically being my son since I did create him," saying that without even the slightest hint of regret in his voice, almost like he expected that they would accept that explanation without question.

"So you mean you created him just to go out with me?!" Gwen nearly yelled in an uproar of emotions, feeling like a knife was going deeper and deeper into her heart with each word this man before her spoke.

"Actually no, that was one little flaw I never wanted to happen. He was only supposed to become a friend to your family; but I allowed it as he was able to get data a lot faster then just being friends," they kept wondering how he could show no emotions towards this entire conversation; those eyes cold without a hint of mercy or regret, "but after finally meeting you face-to-face you are a very lovely young women, I could see how he could be infatuated with you."

The feeling of betrayal still fresh in her heart, holding back her urge to just climb over that table and slug him with all of her anger; while at the same time wondering why, why couldn't the Alex she loved be real, it just wasn't fair.

"Now before we go off the subject any further let us get right down to business," looking at the teens to understand that was anger, misunderstanding, and if he was right from the space between their lips a bit of fear on their faces; wondering why emotions always had to be so complicated and complex any matter, "unlike anyone else I was born in a different way. My mother, who is head of a noble family called The House of Tempus, believed that to do what the family has been trying to accomplish for countless millennia was to create a child that could see without the clouds of emotions while at the same time have a very outstanding intelligence. To achieve this goal of hers, she used her eggs and had them tested with the genes of many different alien species that were known for their high intellect, test tube babies as they are better known as. And after five hundred and sixty-seven tries later there was a complete success, the combination of her human egg with Alien Experiment #1081, a Bucerusians."

Now that emotion that just hit there face was one Pharaoh knew far too well, the wide eyes and opening of the mouth, with the faint sound of a gasp just passing their lips; it was the emotion known as surprised. "Wait, you're saying you're of the same species Ren is?" but then he watched as the young brown haired teen covered his mouth, making Pharaoh realize that he probably didn't know he already knew everything there was to Ren, and more.

"That is correct, interesting at this random coincidence, well technically half Bucerusians on my father's side. The body structure of their species is the closest of the ten thousand species that inhabit the galaxy. That being because their evolution was artificial with the unique idea of what would happen if one was to switch the brain and heart."

Yet while Ben was having a shocked conversation of how many species of aliens are out in space combined with some of Ren's planet's history, Gwen realized something he said. "Hold on," her eyes widen from how quickly it came to her, "Alien Experiment, Alex comes from the first two letters of each word!"

"Correct, so technically my father was Alex the 1st," a bit astonished that she caught that so quickly, seeing that his 'son' did find a good girlfriend even if he was still against it, "so that would mean that Alex the 3rd would be the other personality I created, which fits because Alexander the 3rd was known for being a Pharaoh."

"Well now, back to the main track. Immediately after I was born I was given a lobotomy at the request of my mother, removing the parts of my brain that produced the chemicals that created emotions," another dark chuckle slip from his lips, "it's ironic isn't it, a Bucerusians can't show emotions but are controlled by them, where I have the ability to express them if I actually had any."

"That's a lie!" Gwen painfully slammed her fist on his desk, barely making the teen in white flinch from this sudden outburst. "I've seen you… well Alex laugh, get sad, and… and… was very kind to me."

"Well obviously I will need to be able to express emotions to seem somewhat normal when in public; so I was taught to read and fake them, but some things like that chuckle or grinding my teeth when a plan doesn't go the way I planned has nothing to do with emotions; as it has been proven that an infant that has never seen the expression one makes when smelling something foul will make the exact same expression. Therefore when I created my second personality I put all of that into his design to the point he actually believe that they were real himself. I was a bit surprised that the fake emotions could even fool a full blooded Bucerusians, she must have felt so cold as a being with no emotions is practically a black hole to them," able to explain that clearly even as he read the pure turmoil on the witch's face, "thus everything he ever said to you he believed himself to be true, just incase that is what you were wondering."

Squeezing her soft hand into a tighter trembling fist, in some ways believed that it must be true; there was no way someone could ever have real feelings for someone like her. The closest she could ever get for someone outside of her family for true caring would have to be from fake emotions.

"Well after all of that I outdone my mother's hopes a hundred fold, when after only a half-an-hour of gaining consciousness I was able to speak fluent English, then within the next hour already learned five other new languages and college level arithmetic. But it seemed that even though I was designed to have no emotions, mother found that because the lack of empathy I wouldn't mind the death or destruction of countless civilians if it met with the overall goal, so she had created my little sister; one who focused completely on the emotional and moral parts and do what was needed to be done together."

"At the age of two I was already easily proclaimed as the smartest earthling on the planet with my sister right behind me in intelligence; because of that it wasn't hard for me to create a separate personality that is completely unaware of me. I used my logical thinking and high intellect to be a Detective as a way to have a better understanding of what destructive acts went on in the world outside of my home. Obviously the police wouldn't have listen to a two year old so I had to stay within the shadows. With the money from the cases I solved combined with what I learned in hiding my identity I secretly created Sphinx Corp. outside of my mother's supposed inescapable watch. Even after she had me banished from the House of Tempus I doubt she ever knew that I was the head of this company."

"So what do you have planned with your precious company? I'm going to guess trying to take over the world like all superior feeling super-villains," Ben stated with a smug smirk, believing he already had the CEO of Sphinx Corp. already figured out.

"Not at all, I've never felt superior or lesser to anyone," was a statement that shocked the alien hero, "I am a human just like you; one's skin color, body structure, or who they were born to has nothing to do with the act of being superior to another; and people who do are the worst types of human."

"So what are you planning then," Gwen couldn't help but say through grinding teeth, all this news she was getting was only getting her angrier and angrier, "what was the point of posing like a high school student and studying us?"

"Simple, I wish to start a World War," hearing this explanation made the cousins horrified, even without emotions the thought of starting a war just sounded completely illogical, "a war so large that it will make the previous two look like child's play."

"You are a nut job!" Ben exclaimed his clear hatred towards Pharaoh's plan, wishing to stop him right then and there to cease the idea of a senseless bloodbath, "why the heck would anyone want to start a World War?"

"I think now would be the best time to explain the other half of what I needed to explain to the both of you before I go more in-depth with my plan. You have been pulled into the biggest thing that has ever been hidden to the public, and if Vilgax didn't scream my name that entire time you two would have never been dragged into this. I should have had him muzzled" still giving off that sadistic-like smile to the teens in front of him, cursing to themselves on how he was right; they didn't even know until recently there was someone watching them all this time, "to start off this part I would like to get this out of the way, there is no such thing as God, or any divine beings such as those of Religion."

With a simple sentence, the one known as Pharaoh practically degraded the idea of the beliefs to billions of people. "To clarify, have you ever wondered Benjamin why most of the alien forms you possess in your Omnitrix have the same body structure as yourself?"

Now that Pharaoh mentioned it, Ben never noticed that most of his aliens did have the same humanoid shape just like himself. "Hey you're right; but what does that have to do with the statement religion is completely bogus?"

"Countless millennium ago, there started only nine hundred and sixty-three different alien species throughout the universe; but within this small number compared to now where who the House of Tempus refers to as, The Creators. Their abilities far surpassed those of any other aliens as they were able to control the elements of fire, water, earth, wind and even time down to the basic structure. So with their great powers and intelligence to wield them, they came up with the idea to populate the other planets for their own benefits. To do this they created the greatest spaceship ever made even to this date, one that was able to create conscious beings in surplus they dubbed as Blanks. This great ship was known as Gudduncus Odysseian Denantor; better translated to English as 'The creator of new life.'"

"G… O… D… you mean that people for centuries have mistaking a machine as a divine being?!" Gwen asked, completely flabbergasted at the sheer idea of this being actually possible.

"Correct, besides it actually creating Blanks in the Creators own imagine everything else is a complete myth; I always did find it interesting on how such tall tales were once created from reality," trying to strive back onto the main subject, feeling like his explanation will never be complete with all these interruptions he had to deal with, "however they realized after populating a few planets that the Blanks were able to evolve into completely new beings from the environment, giving a new idea to experiment this as much as possible which in turn now gave the universe from a population of so few to so many."

"Ah I see, so that's why so many of my aliens have a humanoid-like structure," Ben finally caught onto the conversation, with Gwen too angry at Pharaoh to slap her cousin upside the back of the head.

"The Blanks themselves were created with very explicit programming to follow: to discover how to live on the world they were placed on, mate with only one member that is with the opposite sex after performing the Ritual of One Life Ceremony, better known as a wedding to us but not as flashy, reproduce, the male for physical support and the female for emotional support, and repeat. There are some others but I don't need to go through them all at this point in time," he explained as clearly as he could, but still got the same reaction from the two in front of him: doubt and uncertainty, "now the reason why any of this has to do with the human species."

Taking a deep breath, hoping that he still had a chance to change their way of thinking with what he had to explain next. "When The Creators placed the Blanks on this planet after wiping out the dinosaurs, unlike the physical changes all the other Blanks had when evolving they noticed that we kept the same form as a Blank, but instead evolved to have the potential to become beings just like them with the ability to control the elements around us. Because of this they ceased the creation of more species and focused completely on our kind, realizing that the evolution would take much longer then that of the previous Blanks and this planet being its catalyst."

"To help with the control over this world, five noble families were created to help associate with the Creators: The House of Incendos located in Mexico, The House of Aquos located in Atlantis, The House of Terras located in Egypt, The House of Ventus located on top of Mt. Everest, and finally, The House of Tempus located in Rome."

"So your saying that your family, were part of the beginning of the human race?" Ben asked; trying to keep his head from exploding from this history lesson he was getting.

"You are right, Benjamin," Pharaoh informed, "it was thanks to the help of The Creators we had technology to create great structures, construct great empires, and all with the logo of the creature we know as a Sphinx. So what better creature to base my company on then the one used when creating this world we know?"

"So what happened?" the energetic teen was getting interested, always believing that the pyramids were created by aliens.

"That's just it; no one really knows what happened. One day the Creators just up and vanished without a trace or word," Pharaoh explained, taking a quick sip of the glass of water that was on his desk, giving out long explanations really did numbers on one's throat, "and with that Religion was born to fill in the spot the Creators left, with so many people generalizing GOD with the Creators, that many of our species believed them to be one great being and we somehow angered it. In turn the people that were supposed to bring forth a great evolution for a new species were used as scapegoats for the chaos. Scores of them, even women and children, were killed in a 'cleansing flood,' along with the House of Aquos and Ventus being completely annihilated. With the thought that they had somehow angered God for having a power only it should bestow and must have been creations of evil; eventually overtime given the title, of Witches."

Pharaoh's eyes gently turned towards the lovely, yet shocked, orange haired teen; her sea-foam green eyes shaking with fear; that means this entire time people like her were killed just because of sheer stupidity, there was no supernatural force behind her powers to even begin with. "So yes Gwen, you are one of the evolved Blanks of this planet, with powers similar to a Creator. You should have never been ashamed of the gift you possess."

"But with the House of Aquos and Ventus destroyed we lost such vital technology as aviation and boats, which in turned caused the city of Atlantis to just fall apart at the seems and lost forever in our vast ocean. It wasn't much longer until the Houses of Incendos and Terras were destroyed as well, leaving only the House of Tempus to have known what has gone on throughout time," watching their faces change slightly with each explanation he has given them, seemingly they were starting to understand.

"So you're stating that your family is the only one left of the five Noble Families that helped create this world?" the brown-haired teen recapping, trying to keep up with this explanation the best he could.

"Yes and overtime the family has been trying to get the human race back on tract, but unfortunately the attempts have failed over and over again. They nearly got a chance to regain order, especially with the existence of Witches becoming that of myth to the people. However, then came a person claming that he was the son of God and his abilities were proof of that. By using this statement he reinstated the mass hysteria of religion, even though the House of Tempus was able to show one of his followers the truth and lead the Romans to once and for all try to stop the hysteria; it was too late. Therefore, even now the people that are seen as Witches are still cast out and slaughtered, or twisted to being believed that they are creatures of evil, without a second thought as long as it is the Will of God."

"So you mean…" Gwen asked.

"Yes that man really did exist," Pharaoh answered, able to tell what she was about to ask by reading the expression on her face, "and because of all this, the aliens classify this planet as a underdeveloped world, where we are the only alien species out there that worships in a higher being we have never even seen or have any evidence besides the lack of evidence. Not to mention knowing that if humans were to go berserk at our own people, if the idea that aliens ever existed came out to the public who knows what could have happened. As a result, the House of Tempus during the Medieval Ages created an organization dubbed the Forever Knights; highly respected and decelerated Knights of the kings were chosen to collect alien technology and keep the identity of aliens a secret from the public. Think of them as Men in Black with suits of armor."

"Hold on," Ben jumped in, "I doubt all of the aliens would have seen us as underdeveloped; why didn't they just come and introduce themselves?"

"Oh but they did," the teen in white countered, this all only being a condensed version he was explaining to the teens, "it was in the early eighteen century where they made contact with the people of Europe in a place, at its time, called Transylvania; I am sure you know of the species called Draculans."

"You've got to be kidding, you mean Vampires?"

"Even though your cousin calls you a complete bonehead Benjamin so far you have answered each question correctly," this compliment causing the energetic teen to glare at his orange-haired cousin, "Draculans were never human, they were aliens and at first they were seen as a great species; highly intelligent, resourceful and their bites were medicine; curing whatever was in the blood from just a single bite. It was actually their species that saved the people of Europe from the Black Plague."

"So what happened to them?" Ben now really into it, finding out the existence of Vampires was true was just the button to get this teen excited about the conversation.

"Well the emotions of our species are very tricky things and since the Draculans were already a bit of a frightening species to begin with; one day a Draculan accidentally drank too much of the person's blood and killed the human, sending off a powder keg where history repeated itself. Somehow the thought of them being a species created from evil and the high hysteria of religion they were killed off in droves. Having them tied to a pole and exposed to the sun, stabbed through the heart with wooden spikes, such a vicious cycle that us humans keep repeating. To some people it is probably even amusing of the sheer stupidity most of our kind possesses."

"And I'm guessing that has something to do with why you want to start a World War to begin with," Gwen spoke, trying her best to suppress her anger and pain that was stabbing at her shattered heart.

"Indeed it is. Now as you see Blanks aren't supposed to exist so long without evolving. By my calculations we should have been extinct since before the Middle Ages. But I theorize that because The Creators saw such promise in our evolution they took off that failsafe in our design for the evolution to be complete; therefore something must have happened to the Creators out of their control as they did seem to plan to stay till the very end," taking another sip of his glass; pleased that this explanation was almost finished, "but because of how long we have gone on without evolving the basic programming of the Blanks have shown greater damage over the centuries; the act of reproducing before the Ritual of One Life which dilutes the overall meaning of mating, finding mates with species of the same sex which abolishes the program to reproduce, the lack of nurturing the young in turn creates a self destructing path for future generations, and so many other programming deficiencies I can't even count them on both hands."

"The House of Tempus has practically babied this problem, letting it get as bad as it is now; even the Forever Knights were corrupted and recently unaffiliated with the Family. The Family's plan for how to fix everything now is to gently introduce that there is species other than us in the universe, hoping this will help the human race expand. You and Ren have actually been helping the House of Tempus without even realizing it; your Ex-Chancellor Ultimos has probably kept a lot from you."

"Seriously how far does the House of Tempus reach in power?" the green eyed teen grabbed his aching head; so much information going into his short-term memory.

"They are practically the Embassy for Earth in alien affairs," Pharaoh was quick to answer, "but I know that is more of a band-aid to the problem this species faces and to truly fix all the damage the centuries have caused, the diseased arm needs to be removed to save the body."

"I think I see what your saying," Gwen's sea foamed green eyes continued to glare icily at the teen across from her, "you are planning to use the war to hide that it is just being used for a mass genocide."

"Well I wouldn't put it as gruesome as that but you have caught onto the basic point of the overall goal," even with the talk of killing countless innocent people the expression on his face never hinted at changing, with that the teens knew this man must have had no emotions, "at the moment our species has the most inhabitants for a planet this size by at least fifty percent. If the overall plan to finally get the Blanks of this planet to evolve is to be completed, many of those with highly degraded basic programming will need to be scrapped before it can influence others. So I estimated that at least six billion four hundred and forty-five million will need to be wiped out before anything can get started."

"You can't be serious!" the cousin's yelled in unison, with Gwen continuing with the argument, "you mean you are going to reduce the human population from six billion to one million?"

(According to the CIA facebook, at the moment there is at least 6,446,131,400 in the world's population)

"Give or take a few hundred thousand yes," still without a hint of any signs that he had any emotions, almost like he saw humans as files that could be deleted to create more space, "you need to understand the basic programming for us Blanks, along with the DNA structure as well, is so degraded there isn't any other logical course of action to correct it other then get rid of the ones that are already degraded. Do you know if you were to ask any other alien species evolved from Blanks in the universe of having relations other then their mate, have relations before the Ritual of One Life, or with that of the same gender they will look at you like you have lost your mind? Even if you were to ask about them separating from their mate their answer would only be if one of them had died. The people of this world have been tolerating, and even profiting from, the defects of the programming while trying to destroy the evolution. With how long this problem has been babied only extreme courses of action can fix it now."

"So I'm guessing we stopped you just in-time before you were going to unleash your plan," Ben giving off his triumphed smirk and playing with the dial of his watch.

"Actually no, my plan is still at least a good year or two away from completion, so many things could still go horribly wrong if miscalculated," this caused the teen hero to slump back into his chair; that one sentence killed the idea of a nail-biting battle, "but it is thanks to your family this plan dropped down to that few, I was originally planning to start it at least a decade from now; when you're young you always have more time. With Gwen's help I now know how to locate other people with her gift, Ren's Omnitrix gave me all the DNA from every alien species in our galaxy, and you Benjamin with your fierce battles against my FREAKS have giving me the data of what some of them are capable of."

"I knew it was your company behind those guys," the alien hero cheered, but the celebration was very short when he felt a quick sting to the back of his head.

"Obviously if you were to take on common crooks I wouldn't get the full data I needed and after today I will have the police take down those wanted posters. I do apologize if those gave you any inconveniences it was just a formality incase you planned to rush in here and leave my company in ruins."

This guy did hit him right on the head with the hammer with that observation; that was what he originally planned. "But now I wish to ask if you are both willing to help with this plan. You two are very capable and it would be a shame if we were to constantly be in conflict when we both strive for the overall protection of our species. Why not join forces and finally correct the mistakes that have been aloud to thrive for so long?"

The two teens gave that thought all of .0003 seconds. "No freaking way!" Ben defended, "There has to be another way then practically wiping out our species to save it."

"You are letting your emotion of empathy and pride get in the way of your logic thinking," Pharaoh was quick to comment, with Gwen getting a quick thought of how Ben never thinks to begin with, "if something isn't done soon within the next century the entire human race will self destruct. Therefore to save the few many will have to die; it is the only logical answer."

"Well I prefer the House of Tempus's idea better," the energetic hero boosted, "by opening the minds of the people to beings outside of our planet could work and that is what I am going to do; right Gwen?"

The witch couldn't help but crack a small grin on her face. "For once Ben, I agree with you."

Even though this CEO had no emotions, he did have a strong feeling that in spite of everything after explaining they would still let their emotions get the best of them and chose the plan that would seem better morally; such a pain that emotion is, "Well then we have nothing more to talk about for now. I appreciate that you took the time out of your day for this meeting, you are both free to leave."

This kind of gave a bit of a shock to the two teens; they now knew all of this information and he was letting them leave of their own free will. "So you aren't going to fight us or have us killed for the information we have?" Ben questioned, so used too many of his movie ending plots.

"That is right, you two are still very important to my overall plan and both of your basic programming is still intact, I would be a hypocrite to have you both killed just because you know of this information," he calmly explained, "not to mention go ahead and try to explain to the world that the CEO of Sphinx Corp is only fourteen years old or that we were created by a machine; because of the constant brainwashing the humans get from the media and corrupted historic facts no one is going to believe you anyway."

Ben and Gwen couldn't help but chuckle from that explanation, having a hard time believing all of this as well for themselves. However, Ben glared at the cold eyed teen, standing up and revealing his Omnitrix. "Well I'm just going to have to get you to stop this plan from ever happening," the devise on his arm now glowing bright green, and his voice becoming darker, "by any means necessary."

To this declaration of war, Pharaoh rubbed his hand over his head; still having the same inner body structure of this species with half Bucerusian blood. "I truly did hope that there would be no need to fight during this conversation; but sometimes even words can only go so far," pressing a button under his desk, causing the small area the teens stood to be lowered under the floor, revealing to the Tennysons a large empty white room, at least five stories high, "but it never hurts to plan ahead. This place is completely isolated and will fit perfectly as the battleground."

To Be Continued.

Originally I was planning to have this as the last chapter, but overall it would have stretched out to at least twenty pages. Hopefully I still have loyal readers to watch how Ben and Gwen take on the CEO of Sphinx Corp. Read and Review.

Once again, just incase, this is all **FICTION.**


	16. The final battle

I would like to point out that I never once stated that any form of religion was evil in the previous chapter; I wrote that people used it to fill the void where the Creators left; like self delusions. I was describing more like people are idiots for just believing something is fact with little to no evidence which causes the mass hysteria and the damage it inflicts. This can relate to many other things then religion but that was the one that fit my story.

Well enjoy the final chapter to the Hero High series.

Chapter 16: The final battle

Gwen then stood up from her chair as the elevator caring them was about to reach the ground. "So you are willing to take us both on by yourself?"

Snapping his fingers, Pharaoh stated. "Oh thank you Gwen, I nearly forgot," pressing a button on his Thoth where the orange hair cousin was shocked relentlessly, screaming a horrified scream before collapsing on the ground, "there Benjamin, now we can have a gentleman's one-on-one fight."

However, Ben rushed to his cousin's aid; getting on his knees and calling out to her. "Gwen, are you all right? Speak to me, insult me… just say something!"

"Don't worry Benjamin," was words Ben couldn't believe Pharaoh said, even if it was another personality of his how could he do this to Gwen, "she is perfectly all right, I just short circuited her gift. It will take about a week before she gets her powers back but at the moment she is only past out. Your cousin should be back on her feet in at least ten minutes."

Before switching to one of his aliens, the rage induced teen lunged at the CEO of Sphinx Corp., only to be grabbed by the collar and throw against the wall at the bottom of the room. "Never let your emotions get the best of you in a fight Benjamin; you will be no match for me if you do."

The elevator finally reached the bottom, letting Pharaoh casually walk off; but not before grabbing a small white walking cane, baring the head of an androsphinx on the knob handle, from under his desk; still giving Ben that sadistic smile that never left the man's face; making Ben miss that creepy nice guy one he used to wear. "You know Benjamin; there is a weapon in this universe that is stronger then any other no matter how much technology advances. Can you tell me what it is?"

"How the heck would I know?" the teen snapped, replying with a sarcastic remark, "a mythical Mayan sword?"

"It is knowledge, Benjamin," standing with the walking cane before him, watching at the teen get back on his feet, "with knowledge, any other weapon looks like mere pea shooters. Now come at me with any alien you chose, just make sure it isn't the one you call Heatblast."

"Oh, why is that?" changing into the alien before waiting for that answer.

Instantly as he changed, the sprinkler system activated; shooting pure streams of carbon dioxide and water at the walking inferno. "It is because the fire system here is extremely sensitive. From now on you should consider the advice that is being given to you, even if it is from someone you consider an enemy."

Changing back to his human form the alarm system silenced; seeing his school uniform was now soaking wet with his hair blown in every direction besides the one he wanted it in. "Now let this gentleman's fight begin; it is your move."

Grinding his teeth, Ben changed into the powerhouse he called Fourarms; he knew it was a bit overkill but for what this guy did to his cousin Pharaoh deserved whatever he had coming. "Well ready or not!"

The room shaking with each step the behemoth made, Pharaoh only stayed where he stood. "Ah a Tetramand; this particular species focuses on his weight and strength in combat. But the old saying is true, the bigger they are," with only a simple step to the left he dodged Ben's head on attack, where simultaneously struck at the back of the alien's knee with his cane, sending Fourarms tripping over his own weight, crashing on the floor, "the harder they fall."

This was a new feeling Ben had in this form; with his skin like steel he wondered how Pharaoh could have harmed him. "What the heck is that cane made out of?"

The teen in white held out his white walking cane. "It is a simple high grade steel made by my company; nothing more and nothing less," slowly walking a safe distance away; to have any chance against this alien hero he knew that keeping his distance would be his greatest advantage, "you see Ben, even though that alien you possess is incredibly strong, its muscles slow you down so it is quite easy to dodge. Also some points on the body must lack muscle so you can move; one of the places that would be is behind your knee. See now how knowledge is a weapon that has no equal."

If Ben knew this guy had no emotions he would guess Pharaoh was starting to get smug. "Well let's see how all those smarts help you when I hit you!"

Making another attempt to lunge at the teen, Pharaoh charged at him as well; making Fourarms believe that this teen in white wanted to be pummeled. However, at the last second, Pharaoh jumped on one of Ben's arms, jumped over the behemoth, and kicked Ben in the back of the head. Losing his balance the alien teen could only slam face first into the floor. "I forgot to mention you are also top heavy. Sorry Ben, but with the natural size of our species, combined with learning hand-to-hand combat of all forms, there is no way that form of yours will ever strike me."

Another idea popped into the Tennysons' mind; if strength wasn't going to get this guy, speed was the next best thing. Within a bright green flash he changed to the cyborg blue lizard known as XLR8. "Let's see you keep up with me now!" equipping his helmet plate and ready to rush the teen before him with a five hundred mile per hour punch.

Yet it just wasn't this alien hero's day, falling face first into the floor before getting the first step. "A Kineceleran moves at the speeds it moves because its ability to manipulate the friction around them; but this floor is created to adjust to that friction change so a person isn't to trip; which means the form you refer to as Cannonbolt will also be useless here."

"Oh come on!" Ben's frustration got the best of him, feeling like all he was doing was dancing in that blue-eyed teens hand all this time. Knowing Grey Matter and Upgrade would be useless here since there was no machinery to use in this baron room, along with Ripjaw since no water. "Then try this guy on for size!"

Changing into a blue werewolf like being, standing about the same height as Fourarms, he howled out the name of his new form. "Benwolf!"

"Ah a Loboan, that is a good choice for this particular environment," Pharaoh was quick to comment; with no emotions he could observe the enemy without any ill contempt conflicting with his thoughts. "I have wanted to get some information on this species."

"Then take this information!" Benwolf declared; taking in a deep breath before his mouth split into four flaps. So with no little piggy's to blow down their houses he forced the sound wave attack directly at Pharaoh, blowing the CEO into the air and clear across the room. "Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about."

However, with a clear mind Pharaoh was easily able to regain his balance and land on his feet; only to barely block the claw attack with his cane. "Interesting, using the vocal powers as a diversion while doing a physical attack when I was distracted. I might have underestimated you there Benjamin; I'll make sure not to do that again."

Before Ben hit Pharaoh with his free claw, Pharaoh already jumped back; making the strike more like a push as the CEO landed some distance away. This was starting to really irritate the alien hero, if he was ever going to get this guy he needed to nail his feet to the ground. Snapping his fingers to an idea where he quickly changed into his favorite flying insect and flew high into the air. "Let's see you get me from up here."

"Obviously I can't take on a Lepidopterran when in flight," with Ben forgetting that to egg a guy on requires that he has emotions to begin with.

"Well then I will just have to come at you then!" Using the gravity to speed him up, he dive-bombed straight towards the teen in white; waiting for just the right moment.

And there it was, Pharaoh jumped to the side to get out of Ben's unswerveable path. Using one of his tentacle-like eyes he shot a good amount of his sticky gunk at the man's shoes.

With Pharaoh stuck where he landed, the brown-haired teen quickly changed into his living plant-life form. "Now try and dodge this!" grabbing the seeds that sprouted from his back and hurled them right at the know-it-all villain. He knew there was no way he dodged that attack.

Hearing a loud thud, once the smoke cleared he saw the so-called great Pharaoh against the wall; his clothes a bit tattered and it looked like he was blown out of his shoes.

Yet Ben knew it was just too easy, seeing how Pharaoh stood back up without any struggle. "Combining aliens now as well I see, very effective strategy; you nearly had me if I didn't get out of my shoes in time to avoid a direct contact with the blast. But now this battle is starting to draw on a little long; I will now take the offensive."

Tossing his cane a bit into the air to get a hold of it right below the knob handle, and although he was in his socks; thanks to the friction changing floor he was able to rush towards the alien hero. While in his plant-like form Ben wondered what kind of physical attack Pharaoh could do that would hurt him; getting ready with a counter attach of his own once the teen got close.

However, before Wildvyne could get his tentacles around the teen, he ducked just in time, place the tip of his cane right at the plant's chest, and used his other hand to help thrust it; which caused the seeds on his back to explode, sending Tennysons right over the CEO and on the ground, changing back into his human form. "The Florauna has certain pressure points that causes the unwilled discharge to the seeds on its back," resting the pearl-colored cane on his shoulder, "just incase you were wondering how that could have happened."

Pushing himself off the ground and brushing it off, he didn't want to admit it but this guy was good. Even if he was half Bucerusian without using any weapon besides that cane he was able to take on his best aliens. Wondering if he could still win this fight, no longer having the confidence he had before. "You know I have no interest in fighting you Benjamin," the teen with a sadistic grin on his face called out, "you can end this and leave with your cousin anytime you want; but I still wish you would reconsider and help with the overall plan."

Although he didn't have the same confidence as he did before the fight with kicking this guy's butt; he knew he had to stop him anyway he could. He might have been helping the side that is, according to Pharaoh, degrading Blanks, but he knew he couldn't let this nut job practically wipe out the human race. "I will never join up with you," gasping for air as he spoke, wondering how much longer his stamina will last him, "but I won't stop till I stop you."

"Unlike what you might with to believe Benjamin, the world isn't as black and white as you will find in one of your comic book," the Head of Sphinx Corp. tried to explain, "sometimes only drastic measures will fix the problem, no matter how heinous it might be; and even though I have no emotions I only wish to fix all the problems that have been aloud to exist in this world for as long as they have. I don't wish or desire any recognition when my plan succeeds; it will be like as it is now, like I don't exist."

"Well I don't care, I just can't stand by and let you kill innocent people," changing into the one he called Ghostfreak, knowing with his transparent body there was no way Pharaoh could hit him, "so get ready, Round 2 has only just started."

"I see you are starting to analyze the battlefield Benjamin," without emotions Ben knew he couldn't rely on scaring the guy, watching how he stayed calm while speaking to him in a form that sometimes scared himself, "it was a good choice to select an Ectonurite for a hand-to-hand type fight."

"Glad to hear you like the alien that's about to finally kick your butt!" Ben's creepy raspy voice spoke, turning invisible as he knew not even the so-called great Pharaoh could hit something he couldn't see.

And to this alien hero's luck, Pharaoh didn't pull something out from where the sun don't shine; able to make his fist collide with the teen in white's face; sending him flying across the room. "Now this feels right," the hyper teen cracked his knuckles.

Then just as Pharaoh got back up, Ben hit the teen once again; letting him have the feeling that he was going to win this fight. "Well I am impressed Ben," the one the hero saw as a madman stood back up, brushing his tattered white suit, "you might be full of rage but you don't strike till I'm back on my feet; following the basic rules in a gentleman's fight."

Slugging Pharaoh, this time in the gut, Ben answered in that haunting voice. "It has nothing to do with following the rules to a fight; it just goes against my own rules to hit someone on the ground."

"More like your basic programming is still intact," taking out a small white hand-sewn napkin to wipe away the blood tricking from his lip, "disappointing to see how rare the people of this planet still have their programming intact."

"Enough talk!" throwing another punch right to Pharaoh's face, hoping that this one would be the one that ended it.

However, this time before his attack reached Pharaoh's face, Pharaoh grabbed his wrist; making Ben's eye go wide with shock, especially seeing that the teen before him had his eyes closed. "There you are."

Ghostfreak's hand now past through Pharaohs grip, making this energetic teen wonder how that was even possible. "An Ectonurite's ability to phase through objects and disappear from normal eyesight is impressive," Pharaoh explained, almost like he was reading Ben's thoughts, "but to be able to move an object or to affect something they need to solidify themselves; making them, at that instant they do, vulnerable. So by closing my eyes to increase my other senses, this alien's basic attacks are now rendered useless."

"You know, reading one's mind is cheating," this teen going on a hunch.

"I am not reading your mind, Benjamin. Unlike Ren I do not possess psychic abilities since I have no emotions."

"Wait, hold on!" this news being completely new to this teen's ears, "Ren has psychic abilities?"

"I'm quite intrigued that you have yet to noticed ," placing the napkin back into the pocket inside his suit, "the glass that constantly shatters around her. The Bucerusians have the potential to move objects with their mind, but to do so they need to focus on very painful emotions so it is hardly ever used by their species, yet soon she should be able to see the memories connected to the emotions she reads. Ren must have been in so much pain when she came to this planet, with so many errors in our species conflicting with her basic programming. I do hope you take good care of her Benjamin, she is more fragile then she might act."

"I will, once I defeat you," trying his luck with another invisible punch.

In spite of this, Pharaoh not only dodged his attack this time, but before he could return to an unsolidified state, got struck in the back with the CEO's cane, slamming to the cold hard ground. "Yet even though an Ectonurite can be a very dangerous species, they are still pretty much the same in physical strength to when they were Blanks."

With Pharaoh jumping back to a safe distance, Ben knew he was running low on aliens and stamina to fight this guy with. If a person was to tell him a week ago that his aliens were going to get beat by a human he would have thought that person was crazy. So in a last ditch effort, he changed into the tall green hard alien he called Diamondhead; knowing if this guy couldn't beat Pharaoh he was going to be up the creek without a paddle. "Let's see you try this guy on for size!" changing his thick diamond-like arms into rough jagged blades.

"I was wondering when you were going to use that Petrosapien," Pharaoh stated, with how long this battle has gone on he now had to put some effort in dodging Ben's slow attacks. He might have lacked emotions but that didn't make his body feel any less tired from this drawn out fight. Knowledge didn't just help in knowing what the opponent is capable of, but what one's own body was as well, "you have practically gone through your entire team by now and your endurance must be wearing thin."

Blocking both of Ben's arms with his cane, held up with his arms; Pharaoh quickly jumped back, striking the alien as he made the safe distance away.

Looking at his nearly shattered arms Ben knew Pharaoh was right, if it wasn't the defense Pharaoh was keeping up it might be his exhaustion that KOed him.

But luckily, Pharaoh's distance wasn't an issue this time as he aimed his arm; knowing that if he didn't make it in this shot he would probably just collapse where he stood.

However, before the alien hero could launch his attack; Pharaoh threw his cane with such force that it went right through his arm; diverting to where his arm now aimed at his unconscious cousin. With all that has happened he completely forgot she was still there.

Launching the attack out of per reflex, he could only run as fast as his dead-weighted legs could take him; knowing that even with all his might there was nothing he could do; but he couldn't just stand by. He had to try something… anything. "GWEN!"

* * *

The teenage witch's eyes slowly started to open; everything in front of her still a blur to her eyes with only the strange sensation of a warm liquid trickling down her forehead. Touching the substance to get a better look at it and once her nearsighted vision returned her eyes widened from fear; the substance that she rubbed between her fingers was blood.

Then once her entire vision returned to her, she saw none other then Pharaoh facing her; struggling to breathe while his white suit was quickly turning the same color as the substance in her hands; she being unaware of the green spear-like spikes protruding from the teen's back. "G-Gwen," he strained to say, coughing up some blood when he spoke.

Seeing that his eyes were the pure comforting blue she knew too well; going on a hunch she hoped was right. "A-Alex… is that you? Is that really you?"

The blood loss causing him to loose his balance, he in white fell into Gwen's arms; the memory of what he promised Ren not to long ago popped into his mind, how he would protect Gwen with his body if need be. "I-I'm s-sorry… G-Gwen."

"Don't talk Alex," she pleaded with tear-soaked cheeks; looking out not to far in front to see her cousin past out on the floor; making the young woman wonder why now of all times, "just save your strength."

Even her powers weren't working, what was the point of having them if they wouldn't work at the time she needed them the most. "Just stay awake Alex," her tears mixing with his blood that now soaked into her clothes, "please stay awake."

* * *

Although Alex stated the existence of a higher being was nothing more then a myth, it was a miracle that Miss. Neith was able to take Alex to the hospital in time. This orange-haired teen knew that he was Pharaoh, but it was proof to her; somewhere deep inside that mind of his Alex still existed; her being alive today was proof enough.

Her cousin might have thought it was a lost cause, but Sunday was a day she could spend however she wanted; and how she was going to spend it was to see how that 'nut job,' as her cousin put it, was doing. If it was Alex she had a lot of questions to ask him, and if it was Pharaoh she was going to slug him then ask the questions.

Standing before the room labeled 800, she took a deep breath knowing that this was just something that was needed to be done with.

However, once she opened the door, to her surprise the room was completely vacant; quickly getting the attention of a passing nurse. "Excuse me;" holding back her stuttering of shock, "do you know what happened to the patient that was staying here?"

Making a quick observation into the room, then on a clipboard she carried with her; she informed the young witch. "The patient checked out a few hours ago by his caretaker," this information causing Gwen to releases that deep breath with a hint of depression, "by the way, are you Gwen, Gwen Tennyson?"

Never seeing this nurse before, it made her a bit surprise she would know her name. "Yes, my name's Gwen."

"The charming young lad that was in that room told me to give you this if you were to come," handing the teen a small white envelope, "strange how all he asked for when he woke up was something he could write on and an orange for a snack. Is he your boyfriend?"

Gwen's face quickly became flushed as she accepted the envelope, unsure how to answer that now with all that has happened. "Ah to be young again," was what the mid-twenties woman stated, giving the Tennyson the idea that she got her answer from how red this witch's face probably was, "well have a good day."

The nurse practically skipped away, only causing this teen's face to grow a deeper shade of red. But her eyes focused on the envelope in her hand, wondering what could possibly be in this piece of paper with only one way to find out.

Opening the envelope, pulling out the small single folded up piece of paper; she opened it up to read just a simple sentence. **We will meet again, someday.**

* * *

With the advancements in his company's technology, it was child's play for the CEO to make it to Naxos within an hour. The military weaponry part of Sphinx Corp; a large, seemingly gigantic floating structure in the dead center of the Atlantic Ocean; the placement being in international waters meant that what ever this part of the company made or who they sold to was completely legal, since there were no laws this far away from land.

The CEO was then quickly rushed to his private medical bay; getting the treatment even kings would be envious of. Although still in the medical bed, it didn't slow down his planning as Miss. Neith showed him on a laptop the progress so far. "This is perfect, so far my plan could start a little over a year with these numbers as high as they are."

"Pharaoh," Miss. Neith spoke, "your body might be recovering at a fast rate, able to survive such wounds that would have killed any other human on this planet. But you still need to rest to recover properly; this will all still be here the next day."

Looking over at his personal secretary with those cold unchanging eyes of his, he answered her with that tone that lacked any emotion what-so-ever. "That is true, and I will get some rest after looking over these notes. If I am not fully caught up to all of my results I doubt I will be able to rest properly," clicking over to the next page, "you also need to recharge yourself."

Taking a seat in the chair next to her boss, the late-twenties woman nodded. "I understand, I will be on standby incase you request anything."

With that, her emotionless brown eyes went completely blank. So with that out of the way, Pharaoh looked over the files he had: **FREAKS 2.0, Maahes Missiles, Satis Project**, but the one that he focused on first was the filed labeled **Sphinx Academy.** His sadistic grin creeping alongside his face, "Part 1 of my plan: Sphinx Corp.'s pull reaching far greater then that of the House of Tempus for this planet, complete. Part 2 of my plan: getting data of aliens and the evolved Blanks of this planet, complete," a dark chuckle slipped from his lips, "now, it is time for Part 3 to start. I will need to get a temporary distraction for the Tennysons, but what?"

Using the massive resources his company possesses, he came across something very interesting. "A Containment Facility linked with the Plummer's that is still active? Why would they need to keep that up after all these years, what are they hiding?"

If he did have emotions, he believed he would be experience the emotion of joy and pride; it looked like a Creator still did exist on this planet, but reading his vitals the being was far too near death for anything more then being a mere distraction. Luckily, that was just what the CEO to Sphinx Corp. needed. "Well then, I think you have been in prison long enough," hitting his enter key, revealing a green **Unlocked** icon flashing on his screen, "go stretch your legs… Eon."

The End

Well this explains on how Eon was set free, why Gwen never once used her magic throughout the entire movie, and why Ren wasn't there while J.T. and Cash are. I think I made this fit right before the Live Action movie (Ben's LA parents still creep me out though).

Well this is the end to the Hero High series as I am not planning on making another sequel. Leaving it vague and open like this just gives it a feeling that I'm probably being a real jerk. Yet if I do update this series the next story will be titled: Hero High: Sphinx Academy, focusing on my own version for the Ben 10: Alien Force series (no I will not bring in Kevin but Ren will be back). Voice your opinions now.


	17. Extra Extra

Chapter 17: Extra Extra

All right my loyal fans to the Ben 10 Hero High series; I've have posted the infamous last sequel to the Hero High series, Hero High: Sphinx Academy which focuses on my version of the Alien Force series. This one is going to be a lot deeper then the previous two; going into conspiracies, social problems, revealing old and new faces (no Kevin), and a dark secret that should have never been released to the world.

For all that only have Story Alert instead of Author Alert, it is up right now so check my page. Also if not enough reviews come in for the chapter I will have it down by the next week it was posted; I have a lot of plans for this story so I do hope I can continue it.


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